It was Always You
by tang0cat1
Summary: "Fine. FINE! You. Alright. You." "What? Who did you say? Me what?" "YOU! She fancies YOU!" "Did you hear that Gred? ME! She fancies ME!" This is the story of Fred and Hermione for their last few years of school and beyond.
1. The Start of Something New

FRED & HERMIONE IT WAS ALWAYS YOU

"Ginnyyyyyyyyyyy!" Fred called up the stairs at his sister in a whiny sort of voice.

"Ginnyyyyyyy!" George made the same noise as his twin, half taking the mickey out of his brother, half genuine.

"Whattttt?!" Ginny imitated their tone leaning over the railing to look downstairs.

Running down the stairs, she crashed into her two brothers and with a great 'oomph' the three of them crashed to the floor.

"Ginny. You're our little sister, and we love you but could you please get off us? Personal space."

"Yes Ginny. Do we need to have a talk about boundaries…?" They both grinned up at her as she glared down at them. She made an effort to elbow both her brothers in the stomach.

"What did you want?" Ginny asked, after all of them were standing upright again.

"Oh…well…" Fred blushed and looked down.

George elbowed him and winked. "Freddie would like to ask you some questions about your bushy haired friend." Ginny frowned in confusion at Georges description of what she could only assume was a squirrel but as far as Ginny knew, she knew no squirrels. Well there was that family that lived in the big oak tree in the garden but –

"He wants to know about Hermione! Come on Gin, I thought you were smart!" George smirked as his sister looked embarrassed and angry at the same time. It was an amusing face.

"Oh Hermione. Sure what do you want to know about Hermione?" Ginny directed her question to Fred and Fred only.

"Well…do you know if she fancies anyone? Or if you don't know could you find out?" Fred asked, looking down at his shoes the whole time. His face was almost red enough to match his hair.

"I do know but that's personal information. I can't tell you that. That would be betraying her trust and I really don't want to do that. I may throw a pretty mean bat-bogey hex but Hermione is pretty good all the others. I do not want to be on the receiving end of one of her hexes."

"Please Gin. For me? For your devilishly handsome and extremely most incredibly amazing big brother?" He gave her his winning smile that works on all the ladies. But, apparently not on Ginny. She shook her head and crossed her arms.

"No. Nope. Nuppety nope. Nope nope nope nope. Why do you want me to tell you anyway?"

"Because…um...I kinda might…." Fred stuttered unsure of what to say.

"You kinda might…um…fancy her?" Ginny grinned. She had known probably before Fred even knew. It was a girl thing. They pick up on things like that. And it's pretty obvious.

"What? No! That's ridiculous!" Fred spluttered out turning even redder than before.

"And completely true. Come on Gred. Everybody knows. I'll be surprised if she doesn't know." George added. He had stayed quiet the entire time and felt left out. So he of course, had to add something.

"What? Really? Could she know?! Oh god! What if she knows?!" Fred sat down on the bottom step and started freaking out.

"Don't worry, she doesn't know. She is about as oblivious as Ron sometimes. Especially when it comes to things she doesn't understand." Ginny rolled her eyes while she thought about her friend.

"Are you sure? But now you know why I want to know…will you tell me? Please Gin?" Fred begged. George even gave her his best puppy-dog eyes to help out his twin.

"Fine. FINE! You. Alright. You." Ginny crossed her arms and glared at her brothers.

"What? Who did you say? Me what?"

"YOU! She fancies YOU!"

"Did you hear that Forge? ME! She fancies ME!" Fred shouted and jumped up. George grinned and clapped his brother on the back.

"You realise now that you actually get her to go out with you." George said.

"Oh bring down the happiness why don't you." Fred stopped grinning and sat back down on the step.

Suddenly they all heard the back door open and two people came in. The three of them walked into the kitchen to see Mrs Weasley hugging a small, brown haired girl.

"Hermione! How lovely to see you dear!"

"HERMIONE!" Her and Ginny both screamed and hugged each other, jumping around in circles.

Fred and George both looked at each other and raised an eyebrow. They both silently agreed 'Girls'.


	2. Fred's Attempt

**Hi. So for anyone who follows my other stories, you will know this is isn't the characters or generation I normally do but I recently started reading some Fremione stories and now it is my favourite ship…so here is my attempt. I hope you liked the first chapter and that you will continue to read this story. I will try to get into a regular kind of routine with updating. I actually want to see this one to the end unlike my Lily and James story. **

**Oh and in my story didn't go to Grimmauld Place in the beginning of the story and they stayed at the burrow…but they will still all go to Grimmauld Place when Harry has the nightmare and so on. It just seemed to work better with my version of the story if they started off in the Burrow. **

**Disclaimer: I didn't do one of these in the first chapter…I own nothing but the plot. Anything you don't recognise mine, anything you do recognise not mine.**

Hermione blushed when she noticed Fred staring at her at dinner. She had noticed him doing that a lot. Staring at her. In fairness, she had been staring at him a lot too.

After dinner when everyone was seated comfortably in the sitting room listening to the wireless, Fred came up behind Hermione and asked her if she would like to go on a walk with him.

"Come for a walk with me? You know, to get away from the 'singing'" He whispered in her ear. Hermione jumped and spun around.

"Oh Fred, you made me jump! Sure let's go." She stood up and walked outside with him.

They wondered around the extensive Weasley garden for a while with nobody speaking until Fred finally spoke. He had noticed Hermione shiver and felt he had to something chivalrous. He silently took off his jacket and put it round her shoulders.

"Sorry I should have let you grab a jacket first. Here take mine." She tried to protest saying she couldn't take it, otherwise he would get cold. "Just take the jacket Hermione."

"Fine. But if you get cold…" Hermione muttered, taking the jacket grudgingly.

"I don't want you to get cold. For two reasons, but mainly because mum would kill me if she found out I had let you get cold."

Hermione gave him a strange look. What was the other reason? She would have to find out.

Fred noticed the strange look Hermione was giving him and looked away awkwardly. Does she know? Could she know what the other reason is? Uh-oh…

"So, Fred. Why did you want to come on a walk with me? And without George, I thought you two were joined at the hip." She gave Fred a little grin to show she was joking. She knew how much he hated when people assumed they were always together because they were twins.

"We were, but the surgery went fine and now we are free to do as we please." Fred joked.

"Oh good I'm glad it went well." Hermione laughed in reply.

"So anyway, I brought you out here because I wanted to talk to you about something. Um…Hermione...I…I rea-"

"FRED! HERMIONE!" They could hear Mrs Weasley shouting from the house and figured they better go inside.

Fred groaned inwardly. He guessed it would just have to wait for another time. Maybe tomorrow or on the train…maybe not the train. Hermione wouldn't like a huge proclamation in front of everybody. That rules out the Great Hall or the middle of the Gryffindor common room. He decided to just say it when the moment comes.

XxXxX

Hermione and Fred never got a chance to properly talk for ages. Soon enough the summer holidays were over and they were preparing to go to the station to board the Hogwarts Express. Mrs Weasley was shouting at everybody, especially Fred and George for knocking Ginny down the stairs, but she needed everybody to hurry up.

After Hermione had given Hedwig back to Harry, she started to carry her trunk out of Ginny's room to take it downstairs when Fred and George appeared either side of her.

"Let us take that."

"Wouldn't want you to hurt yourself"

"That would absolutely"

"Most amazingly"

"Be the most terrible thing"

"That could ever happen" Both the twins grinned and winked at Hermione, before picking up her trunk. They had learnt from the Ginny incident and did it the Muggle way instead of sending it flying down the stairs.

"Thanks guys but you really don't need to" Hermione protested but the twins waved her off. They gently placed her trunk at the bottom of the stairs and bowed to Hermione. Fred looked like they were about to say something when Mrs Weasley yelled for everyone to get their coats because they were leaving.

They all ran to grab their coats and get their trunks in the car that had been magically expanded by Mr Weasley unbeknown to Mrs Weasley, who commented on the Muggles clever ability to it so much in such a small space.

"It's simply amazing. We really should give Muggles more credit."

Even with the expansion, Hermione was still squashed between Fred and George. She didn't complain though because she felt strangely comfortable where she was. It was nice. Safe.

**I'm gonna put two chapters up tonight, or try to…**

**Thank you for reading and a special thank you to Apples and Beckett for being my first reviewer on this story :) **


	3. The Cardigan Lady

**Here we go! Two chapters in one night! **

**Disclaimer: Tis not mine, only the plot **

**And on with the story :)**

"Anything off the trolley dears?" As usual Harry jumped up to buy some of everything, just as Fred, George and Lee came squeezed into the compartment past Harry.

Fred sat down next to Hermione and George and Lee sat opposite.

"Hello Fred, George, Lee." Hermione nodded at them all in greeting.

"Hello Hermione!" All three said together. In all the years that Lee had spent with the twins, he had started to say things in unison with them like they did with each other. But it still creeped him out when they said random things together that no one would expect.

"Anyone gonna say hi to your little brother?" Ron asked from the corner. He had been squashed by George when he and Lee had sat down.

"Hello Ron" George and Lee both said. Fred was too busy watching Hermione to focus on anything else. Ron crossed his arms unhappily at being forgotten by his own family plus one. Hermione glared at him for being over sensitive, but before he could say anything, Harry had flopped down on the floor surrounded by sweets from the trolley.

"Oh, hi Fred, George, Lee. Want some food?" Harry offered up to them. They all took something, Fred and George discarding their dried sandwiches out the train window.

For a few hours they all sat together chatting and eating until the announcement came over the train that they would be pulling into the station in ten minutes. The twins and Lee left to get changed and Hermione went into Ginny's compartment to change into her robes.

XxXxX

Once seated in the Great Hall, the Weasleys, plus Harry and Hermione, all looked up at the head table and noticed three things. First that Hagrid was missing from the table, secondly Professor Grubbly-Plank was sitting in his place. Lastly they noticed that in sitting in the DADA teachers seat was a toad-like woman wearing a pink cardigan.

Fred noticed Harry whispering to Ron and Hermione but couldn't hear what they were saying. Dumbledore introduced the cardigan lady as Professor Umbridge. When she interrupted Dumbledore, Fred and George shared a silent look of interest mixed with anger. They held great respect for Dumbledore and didn't appreciate someone interrupting him.

Umbridge's speech was soon over and dinner was served. Ron as usual piled his plate sky high and immediately started shovelling it all in. George made a slightly smaller pile and ate with a little more dignity than his younger brother. Fred on the other hand made a reasonable pile of food on his plate and slowly began to eat.

Hermione had noticed the difference in the way the twins eat but knew that Fred used to eat more like Fred and was confused as to why he was being more polite. Is there someone he's trying to impress? Angelina…no George fancies Angelina. Alicia? No they already had a fling and it didn't end too well. He knows better than to try that again. And it couldn't be Katie because she had a boyfriend. So who?

**I know its short and I am really sorry because I wanted to do a really long chapter but my imagination apparently doesn't agree. Sorry**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this extremely short chapter…**


	4. A Visit to the Hospital WIng

**So, I know last chapter was short, in fact it's quite weird for me because I really enjoy writing long stories…but I plan to write a long one which is why I started this like 5 days before Tuesday so I could spend AGES writing for you! **

Fred looked up as Harry, Ron and Hermione all slammed their bags down and flopped angrily into chairs around the fire in Gryffindor Tower. Hermione glared into the fire, while Harry tapped his foot on the ground rapidly. Ron just stared grumpily at his feet.

"What's up children?" Fred asked, looking at all their unhappy faces.

"Umbridge." Harry grunted. Oh, he understood now.

"What did she do?"

"She said Vold-"Ron and Fred both made a small noise at the name "-ermort didn't exist and then sent me to McGonagall when I argued with her. So now I have detention all week. I hate her! How can she say that You-Know-Who doesn't exist?! Was she not alive last year?!"

Fred sighed. He hadn't been there last year in the graveyard, in fact no-one had. But he still believed Harry when he said that You-Know-Who had been there. Why would he lie about that? There was no reason too. And especially since he came back to clinging to the dead body of Cedric Diggory. It's pretty obvious something had happened and You-Know-Who seemed like a plausible explanation. It frustrated him that no-one believed Harry about last year's events. Though, it probably frustrated Harry more…

"What's up children? Even bigger child?" George and Lee came and sat down on the sofa next to Fred.

"Umbridge." Harry grunted. Again.

"What did she do?"

"She said Vold-"

"We've been through this!" Hermione interrupted. "She gave Harry detention because he argued with her in class." She didn't want to have to listen to the explanation again.

"Good going Harry! Got your sass out on a teacher! I'm proud of you!" George reached over clapped him on the back. It made Harry smile but it quickly faded.

Hermione and Ron laughed at Georges joke. Fred smiled as Hermione's features lit up. It made him happy that she was happy.

"So when do you have your detention with toad-face anyway?" Lee asked.

"Tomorrow night. McGonagall says, even though she disagrees everything that Umbridge says, I shouldn't have argued with a teacher and have to go to the detention."

"It shouldn't be too bad. She can't do anything too you or Dumbledore will step in and although he allows Umbridge to be here he won't let her harm a student." Fred said trying to reassure the angry boy opposite him.

"Whatever. I'm going to bed." Harry stood up and dragged his feet up the stairs to the dormitories.

"Yeah me too" Ron followed his friend. This just left Fred, George, Lee and Hermione sitting around the fire.

"I think I might go to bed too. Coming George?" Lee stood, pulling his friend up off the sofa. Although Lee was slower than the twins at noticing when something was going on, he wasn't a Ron. He knew that Fred like Hermione and that Hermione liked Fred. He had also worked out that Fred knew about his feelings but Hermione has been a bit slow on realising hers.

Fred watched them leave. Something was going on. Lee and George were planning something…

"And then there were two." Hermione interrupted his thoughts.

"Huh? Oh right yeah. So…aren't you tired? Don't you want to go to bed?" Fred's point was proven correct when Hermione tried to stifle a yawn.

"No I would rather stay here…with you" Hermione smiled at him adding that last bit under her breath. Fred smiled back having just heard her last comment.

"Hey Hermione, did you hear about the hog-" Fred was interrupted Harry and Ron shouting about something. They both looked up in surprise when they heard Seamus Finnigans voice as well. They were arguing again. Hermione sighed. Why does no-one believe Harry?

"Maybe I will go to bed. It's late and I am a little bit tired like you said. Night Fred." Hermione yawned again and headed up to bed. Fred watched her go sadly.

"Night Hermione. Man, I cannot catch a break!" Fred muttered to himself.

XxXxX

Hermione left Ron and Harry on the way to Arithmancy. They headed off to the North Tower and she headed in the other direction. She felt a little exposed walking alone in Hogwarts, she almost always had one of the boys with her, or was surrounded by other people.

As she reached the Arithmancy classroom, Draco Malfoy, flagged by his Inquisitorial Squad.

"Granger. Granger Granger Granger. Late for class I see?" He tutted.

"Malfoy. Malfoy Malfoy Malfoy. Not going to class I see?" Hermione tutted in reply.

"I'm part of the Inquisitorial Squad. I don't have too if I'm enforcing rules."

Hermione laughed. "What rules? The 'Stop them on the way to class because I'm an idiot' rule? That rule? Because that particular rule doesn't exist. Only in your mind Malfoy."

"No Granger. The rule that I am in enforcing is the 'No being late to class' rule. That rule."

"You can't do anything except give me lines Malfoy. I'm not scared of you." Hermione readied herself to punch him if she had to. She'd done it before. She punched him in third year and he's probably still a little scared of her. As he should be. Hermione could throw a pretty good punch.

Malfoy eyed her fist carefully. "That's what you think Granger." He sneered at her. "I can take points. Including the 5 I am taking right now."

"Fine. Take the points. But you realise that all the time you're talking to me, you're holding me from getting to class. So if you would let me leave then I wouldn't be violating your rules, would I?"

"Whatever. Get to class Mudblood." Malfoy sneered in her face.

Hermione couldn't take it. She punched him. He reeled back and gripped the side of his face. Before he could say anything, the Inquisitorial Squad all whipped out their wands. One of them shouted a spell and everything went black.

XxXxX

"Harry! Ron! Ginny came running up behind the boys. They span laughing about something but their smiles quickly faded when they saw the worried look on the girls face.

"What's wrong Gin?" Ron asked looking at his sister's worried face.

"You had better come with me." Ginny took both their arms and dragged them quickly towards the Hospital Wing. They ran into Fred and George on the way and Ginny made Harry and Ron grab them too.

"Ginny? What are you doing?" Fred and George asked her. She ignored them and kept dragging the boys along. They reached the Hospital Wing and she pulled them inside. She pulled them over to a bed occupied by a certain bushy-haired girl.

"Hermione?! How…why…what?" All four boys exclaimed. Hermione was sleeping and seemed peaceful. Fred stared down at her small face and sighed angrily. It made him angry that someone felt that they could hurt his Hermione. Wait, what? His Hermione? Since when was she _His Hermione_…actually…he kinda liked that. Yeah…His Hermione.

George wasn't watching Hermione, he was watching his twin. He had worked out ages ago that Fred had a crush on the fifth year but seeing the way his brother was looking at Hermione made him think the feelings were slightly more than a schoolboy crush. He observed all of his brothers faces. They were quite comical really. They went from angry to confused to happy to confused again and angry again. His face finally seemed to settle on just plain confused.

They all turned around when Madame Pomfrey came out of her office to push them all out. "This girl needs to rest! Out! Out!" They were all ushered out the door and they all stood in the corridor outside, trying to peer inside the doors until Madame Pomfrey shut the doors in their faces.


	5. The Second Time in a Week

**Hey! So, I will try to update on Tuesdays but since last week I missed it, I promise to try harder. I still updated though! **

**Just you know, like stick with me! Oh and if you haven't already, please go read my other story Lily and James: A love story. It was my first ever story and I kinda forgot about it but I put a new chapter up the other day and maybe you could go read it?**

**Disclaimer: Not mine. Well the plot is and maybe a few characters (if I make any up :D) **

Two days later and Hermione was still in the Hospital Wing. She was awake and felt fine but Madame 'Pom Poms' insisted that she still could have some lasting effects from whatever curse it was that could affect her at any moment. So Hermione was forced to stay in her bed away from classes. This frustrated her more than anything. Fifth year is the second most important in Hermione's opinion and how was she supposed to study if she was relying on Harry and Ron's notes. Their Charms notes were virtually non-existent, their Transfiguration notes were impossible to read and who knew where their History of Magic notes were. They didn't have any DADA notes other than reading certain chapters of a book that she had read at least 5 times before.

So Hermione spent her time writing essays for Snape and attempting to make her glass of water fly around the room without spilling. Of course, she accomplished that within her first hour of trying and soon got bored.

When it wasn't class time, Hermione had a constant stream of visitors. Mostly Harry, Ron and Ginny but sometimes Fred and George. Other times – much to Hermiones secret delight – just Fred. She had spent a lot of time thinking in her time alone and had come to the conclusion that she couldn't deny it any longer. She had a huge crush on Fred and maybe time to act on it. But she would need Ginny's help.

Hermione had been so pre-occupied with her thoughts that she hadn't noticed Fred arrive. He sat down next to her bed and poked her repeatedly in the shoulder.

"Oh hi Fred!" Hermione smiled at him.

"Hey. How you feeling?" Fred asked her smiling back.

"Fine!" Hermione groaned. "And if Madame Pomfrey would just LET ME OUT OF HERE I would be even better!" She put extra emphasis on her words hoping for Madame Pomfrey to hear her.

Fred laughed "Pom Poms won't let you out! You're never going to escape!" He joked in a spooky voice.

"You'll just have to help me plan my escape. Surely you and George can think of something to get me out of here." Hermione laughed. She desperately wanted out of the Hospital Wing, firstly so she could murder Malfoy and his Inquisitorial Squad and secondly so that she could be out of the Hospital Wing. It was driving her mad being cooped up in here.

"Well. I never thought I would see the day. Hermione Granger asking me for help to break rules. Tut tut Miss Granger."

"Yeah well I'm going crazy in here not being able to get Malfoy back." Woops. Hermione flung her hand to her mouth. She hadn't meant to tell him or any of her friends who had done it. Now he would go on a rampage to find Malfoy. And although she wanted to get Malfoy for what he had done, who knew what Fred would do.

"Malfoy?!" Fred ground his teeth. Of course. Why wouldn't it have been Malfoy? He was stupid for not working out straight away. "I'll get him for putting you here." Fred stood up to go and Hermione jumped out of bed.

"No Fred don't! Leave him! He isn't worth it!" Fred ignored her and stalked out the Hospital Wing doors, closely followed by a worried Hermione. They ran into Malfoy in the Entrance Hall and Fred walked straight up to him and punched him squarely in the face. Malfoy fell to the floor and groaned. Second time in one week he had been punched in the face.

"Don't you touch Hermione again!" Fred yelled. He went to punch Malfoy again but Hermione grabbed his arm.

"Stop! Fred don't please!"

"But he hurt you! He deserves it!" Fred looked down into her pleading eyes.

"For me? Please?" Hermione begged him.

Fred sighed. "Fine. I'll stop but let me kick him first." Fred gave him a kick in the crotch before walking away.

"Nice dress Granger." Malfoy managed to choke out but he said no more when Fred span around and glared, raising a fist warningly.

He took Hermione back to the Hospital Wing where Pomfrey was waiting. "Where have you been young lady? You can't just get out of bed and walk out! But you seem to perfectly healthy so you can go."

Hermione grinned. "Finally!" So one thing came out of Fred storming out. Fred helped her grab her things and they left. It was an awkward walk back to the common room, with Hermione afraid to talk to Fred right now who was still glaring at the wall.

They walked through the portrait hole and greeted by a glaring Professor McGonagall.

"Mr Weasley. Please explain to me why you felt the need to punch Mr Malfoy in the Entrance Hall?"

XxXxX

Hermione was still waiting for Fred to return from Professor McGonagall's office. All her friends had gone up to bed hours ago and she was the only person left in the common room. When Fred finally walked through the portrait hole he was still glaring. He shouted something and kicked a wall before realising Hermione was in the common room.

He came and sat on the couch next to her in front of the fire. He glared into the fire, much like she had a couple of weeks before.

"What did she say to you?" Hermione asked quietly, unsure whether to speak or not.

"Gave me a detention every night for 2 weeks for attacking Malfoy. When I told her why, she said she would deal with Malfoy later. Bet she doesn't. Umbridge was there and she tried to give me a worse punishment but McGonagall at least stopped that. I could have ended up like Harry with a scar permanently on the back of my hand."

"Oh Fred. It was sweet of you to do that for me but now it's gotten you into trouble."

"No. No I've had longer detentions. Come on Hermione, look who you're talking too. I've had months of detentions!" Fred grinned at her. It was cute that she was worried about him.

"So why are you angry?" Hermione turned in on couch to face him directly.

"Because I couldn't hurt him more." Fred ground his teeth as he thought of all the other things he would have done to Malfoy if Hermione hadn't have stopped him.

"Fred-" Hermione warned.

"No. He hurt you! He put you in the Hospital Wing. I couldn't sit there and watch you in pain. And Malfoy did that. Malfoy put you in pain. I…I can't…I can't because Iloveyou." Fred stuttered out the last bit. It was all true though. What he said was what he felt. It was just hard for him to say I love you to someone when they might not love him back.

"What?" Hermione asked. Did he just say what she thought he said?

"I-I love you Hermione."

"Fred I-" Hermione started to say before she was cut off by Fred kissing her. He had done it for two reasons, mainly because he didn't want to hear her reject him and secondly because he just wanted to. And it was a nice kiss. It was deep and passionate and said everything that he couldn't put into words.

She was shocked at first but she soon responded. Fred was surprised when she started to kiss him back. She started to run her hands through his hair and Fred responded by putting his hands on her face and pulling her closer. Sooner than Fred wanted, the kiss was over.

Hermione didn't say anything. She sat, shocked for a while before standing and running up the dormitory stairs. This was way too much. She was freaking out. Her mind was like a battlefield. On one side she was screaming 'YES YES YES FINALLY!' but on the other side she was calmer and more logical, 'this can't be happening. It's just a joke. Just a joke that's gone a little too far.' So of course her initial response was to run away and pretend it never happened. Sleep on it. Yeah. That's a good plan…yeah…


	6. The Best Facial Hair

**I feel horrible for last chapter BUT I have a plan. I originally wrote them getting together last chapter but then I felt, just to be cruel (kidding) I would string it out for another chapter. Don't hate me! I promise either this chapter or next! **

Fred woke up in the morning feeling like death. Worse than death actually. Like death that crawled in a hole and died. A happy hole though, because he kissed Hermione. But a hole where death had died none the less.

"Wake up Freddie! We've got a Hogsmeade to visit! A Zonko's to raid!" George bounced on his brother who groaned in response. Immediately George realised something was wrong and stopped bouncing. "What's wrong Gred?"

"Hermione Granger."

"Oh. What happened?" George knew about Fred's huge crush on Hermione. But that's all he thought it was. He had no idea – yet – how real Fred's feelings really were.

"We kissed. And then she ran. I never normally have that effect on a woman." Fred groaned into his pillow.

"Oh." George repeated. "I see. Well. You know what will cheer you up? HOGSMEADE!"

Fred sighed. Hogsmeade was a good option he supposed. Crawling out of bed he grabbed some clothes and slowly got dressed. "Come on then. Let's get to breakfast."

XxXxX

George silently followed his brother down the stairs of the dormitory and out of the portrait hole. He knew exactly what Fred needed. A day out in Hogsmeade and a visit to Zonkos.

When they reached the Great Hall Fred went to sit next to the bushy haired fifth year and her friends but sat somewhere else when he figured they probably weren't going to be talking. George said nothing but he had noticed Fred falter before sitting down.

They ate in almost silence until Lee joined them and struck up a conversation about Zonkos. All three of them chatted for a while, and after breakfast they all made their way down to Hogsmeade. Fred's third of the conversation faded when he noticed Hermione, Harry and Ron all making their way to Hogsmeade as well.

Fred was trying to listen in on their conversation. Hermione, like Fred was quiet, probably just listening to the boy's conversation about Quidditch. Although Hermione enjoyed watching the games, Fred knows she doesn't really understand the game. He was trying to listen in closer when he realised he was started to drift slowly towards them.

"Fred!" George whispered, pulling him back. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, ummm…" Fred had no answer. He had barely noticed where he was heading until George had grabbed the collar of his shirt.

"Right. Well we're heading to Zonko's. Come on." George let go of his collar and pushed Fred towards the crowded joke shop. They walked in and was immediately attacked by colour and smell. In the far corner, a kid was covered in smoke from an explosion, who on closer inspection, Fred realised was Seamus Finnigan. Fred rolled his eyes and headed over towards the dung bombs. He grabbed two handfuls, plus a couple of bars of frog-spawn soap and went to the counter to pay. He found George and Lee at the counter both with handfuls of joke sweets and George had a set of nose-biting tea cups.

"Do you think we have enough?" Lee laughed, indicating to the four bags they all had.

Fred shook his head, also grinning. "We might have to go back. But now can we get some butterbeer, I'm freezing!" George grinned at his brother. He knew Fred needed a trip to Zonkos to cheer him up.

Fred pushed open the door the Three Broomsticks and they made their way over to their usual table. Lee ordered the drinks and they sat silently sipping their drinks.

"So. I was thinking, for the skiving snackboxes, we need to make them tastier. I mean, people want to skive class but they won't buy our sweets if they taste like hippogriff dung. So my question is, what sort of flavours? We could make a range of flavours for different sicknesses." George set his drink down and looked at Lee and Fred for suggestions.

"How about chocolate to make someone faint? We could call them…Fainting Fancies. Yeah, how about that?" Fred suggested. Georg nodded and got out a piece of parchment to write it down.

"Something with fudge. Everyone loves fudge. A fudge to give people a fever?" Lee said. George nodded and wrote it down.

"This is good. We just have to think of a few more and we can start adding the flavours and a few illnesses. We already have nosebleeds and puking but we need to add flavours to those ones."

George wrote them a note to remind them to think about the other flavours. Fred nodded and looked around to make sure no-one was listening. His eyes stopped at the door where he saw Hermione, Harry and Ron coming through the door laughing about something.

It was nice to see Hermione smile. She had looked so troubled this morning at breakfast. He had been starting to worry that what he had done last night had really upset her.

Hermione looked over and saw Fred watching her. He quickly looked away when she noticed him and went back to what he was doing. She watched him for a while as he put his head together with George and Lee and they started talking quietly.

"Hermione?" Ron waved a hand in front of her face. "Hermione?!"

"Oh, sorry, what?" Hermione turned to Ron. She had completely tuned out, and Ron had been trying to get her attention for the past minute.

"Are we gonna get drinks or are we just gonna stand here like idiots?" Ron asked. Hermione nodded and they all sat down at a table in the corner. That table just so happened to have a perfect view of Fred and George's table, a couple of metres away. Harry ordered the drinks and Hermione sat back and watched Fred.

During the course of their visit to Hogsmeade, Harry and Ron probably had to shout to get Hermione's attention at least twenty times. She spent so much of her time looking at Fred that she barely noticed it had started to snow. When they walked outside, Hermione shivered and wished she had ordered another butterbeer to keep her warm as they walked back up the castle. She conjured a small fire to float along in front of them and put out her hands to warm up. Harry and Ron smiled gratefully and put their hands out too.

They walked in silence until they reached the castle and bumped into Fred, George and Lee. Harry and Ron struck up conversation about Quidditch and Hermione tuned out. It quickly became obvious to Fred that she hadn't told her friends about the 'incident' last night. Otherwise, he was pretty sure they would have torn him apart by now for hurting Hermione. Though, actually, if anyone was hurt in this scenario it was Fred. Hermione was the one who had run off.

Fred was almost as quiet as Hermione. Neither of them were talking much and Fred was barely listening. Instead he was focusing on Hermione. She was bored. Obviously she was bored. She had never liked talking about Quidditch and that's all anyone seemed to talk about at Hogwarts.

"You alright over there Hermione?" Fred asked, trying to act normal. Hermione's head jerked up at the sound of his voice and she blushed.

"Yeah. Fine." She looked back down at her shoes. "Thinking."

"When aren't you thinking?" Ron snorted. Hermione stuck her tongue out at him.

"Oh. Attractive." George said. Hermione poked her tongue at him as well. George poked his tongue back at her.

"Mr Weasley, Miss Granger, what are you doing?" Professor McGonagall was coming down the huge stairs in the Entrance Hall where the six of them were standing. Hermione blushed under the gaze of her professor and glared at George.

"Nothing Minnie. Nothing at all." George grinned her.

"What did you call me?"

"Minnie."

"It's professor to you Weasley."

"Does that include me Minnie?" Fred asked, grinning at her.

"Yes Mr Weasley. That includes you."

"But Minnie. I thought we were friends?"

"And friends should be on a first name basis."

"We are not friends, Mr Weasley. Nor you, Mr Weasley." She frowned at Fred and George and walked into the Great Hall. The six of them followed her in and took seats at the Gryffindor Table. Fred and Hermione accidentally sat next to each other but were too awkward to move so just sat there.

Harry started complaining about Umbridge and Hermione listened but didn't say anything. Fred nudged her and nodded towards the door. Hermione nodded back and got up. If Harry and Ron noticed, they didn't say anything. She walked out of the hall, grabbing a sandwich as she went. It's not like she planned on starving.

Fred followed her, watched by George who elbowed Lee who also watched. "Where do you think they're going?" George whispered.

"I don't know. Follow them?" Lee whispered back. George shook his head at Lee.

"Let's give them some privacy. Maybe in a minute…"

XxXxX

Fred led Hermione to a tapestry on a fourth floor corridor. She raised an eyebrow at him when he went to pull her inside. He rolled his eyes and pulled her in and let the tapestry swing back into place.

"What did you want Fred?" Hermione looked up at Fred suspiciously. She wasn't sure whether or not to trust Fred hidden behind a tapestry in a corridor no-one goes in. He might be angry with her and kill her something and no-one would ever find her until two weeks later when she starts to smell and rot and everyone-

"What happened last night? You ran off. I have had a lot of stuff happen to me but never has a girl run away when I've kissed her."

"I'm sorry. Did I knock you confidence a bit?" Hermione winced at her words. This morning she had been hurt with him and didn't want to talk with him and suddenly she was being harsh. Fred sighed. Girls.

"No. But you hurt me." Fred looked down at his shoes.

"Fred, I'm not used to people suddenly declaring their love for me. It took me by shock and I kinda freaked. You just said it so easily and did you what you did and then-"

"It wasn't easy for me say it! I had to say it twice! I wasn't sure if you would say it back or whether you even have feelings at all for me!"

"Let me say my piece Fred. You said what you said and did what you did and I didn't know how to react. I couldn't think, I couldn't speak and I certainly couldn't declare feelings of love that I barely knew existed until yesterday when you punched Malfoy."

"So what are you saying?" Fred asked, feeling a faint glimmer of hope in his heart. Maybe she loves me too and we can be together and we can get married and have little bushy-haired ginger babies.

"I'm saying, you big idiot, that I love you." Hermione said before standing on her toes and kissing him. Fred's brain and heart exploded. His head was an explosion of excitement, happiness and simple OMGing.

When Hermione pulled away she was grinning. Fred pulled her closer and grinned down at her as well.

"So, what does this mean? You're not gonna run away on me again are you?"

"Nope. I'm happy right here thanks." Just then they heard a loud WOOP from outside. Fred tugged open the tapestry too find Lee Jordan and George Weasley standing outside looking sheepish.

"Hi Fred. Lovely day isn't it?" George said, slightly scared of what his twin brother. Fred glared at George and Lee.

"What are you doing here?" Fred ignored George and skipped straight to the point.

"I thought I might go make a snow angel, what do you think George? Play in the snow?" Lee added, also slightly scared of Fred.

"Snow angels are fun to make-"

"Stop talking about snow angels! What are you two doing here? Were you following me?" Fred interrupted.

"Well. Simple answer? Yes. But it was Lee's idea!" George pointed at the boy standing next to him before hiding behind said boy.

"Don't worry George, Lee. Fred, isn't angry. Are you Fred?" Hermione smiled at the boys and looked up at Fred. Fred looked down at Hermione and sighed.

"Fine. I'm not angry at you. BUT why were you following me?"

"Because Lee is a sad boy with no life and he feeds of the life of others." George grinned at Lee who punched his arm, hard. "OW! That was uncalled for."

"Oh really? How about you think back to the past five seconds and then tell me if that was uncalled for. I am not a boy. I am a man. I have facial hair and everything." Lee said stroking his small goatee.

"Excuse me but I think my facial hair is one to be reckoned with." Fred said stroking his non-existent beard.

**Longest chapter yet!  
See you next Tuesday!**

**Toodle Pip x**


	7. The Bouncing Incident

**So, I just wanted to ask a quick question. Can anyone picture Fred or George with a beard? I don't mean like the beards they had in the fourth movie but a proper ginger beard that they purposely grew. I'm not sure…it could look okay, I suppose…**

"WHAT?! When did this happen? Why was I not informed of this?!" Ron shouted. The whole common room turned around to look at the ginger boy and his bushy haired friend, who was currently blushing bright red.

"Will you be quiet?" Hermione hissed. "I'm telling you now aren't I?" Ron huffed and crossed his arms.

"Mione, what I think he's trying to say is, if you say it happened two weeks ago, why didn't you tell us _two weeks ago_?" Harry interjected before another classic Hermione vs Ron match started.

"Because_ I_ wasn't even sure of it myself two weeks ago so I wanted to keep it quiet. I mean, it's a bit of a big thing, admitting you love someone."

"WHAT?! You love him?!" Ron shouted again. Again the whole common room turned to look at him. Hermione genuinely looked like she was about to strangle him this time. Harry actually had to stick out an arm to prevent her from wrapping her hands round Ron's neck.

"Yes Ronald. I love him. Have you got something to say about that?" Ron looked like he did have something to say but a look from Harry silenced him.

Just at that moment, slightly inconveniently, Fred and George bounced through the portrait hole. Literally bounced. George even hit his head the wall as he lost control of his bounce. They bounced over to Hermione and pouted at her.

"Hermione!" They both whined. She arched and eyebrow at them to say 'what do you expect me to do about it'.

"Please Hermione."

"Will you please?"

"Please fix it?" Fred was slowly bouncing higher and higher, getting dangerously close to hitting to ceiling.

Ron and Harry were both laughing, until they were silenced by a glare from George.

"What happened to you? Why are you bouncing?" Harry asked the twins.

"Spell gone wrong." George answered, rubbing his head. Unfortunately he had beaten Fred to the ceiling.

"Well I can't help you unless I know which spell." Hermione stated. Fred groaned.

"There isn't really a counter-spell…"

"And why not?"

"Because the spell that caused our little predicament here, has only just been invented…OW!" Fred had finally hit the ceiling. The common room all turned around again and stared at Fred this time. He grinned at them all and turned back to Hermione, trying, unsuccessfully, to give Hermione the puppy eyes.

"I can't help you Fred if there isn't a counter-spell." Hermione rolled her eyes. "It's basically impossible." Fred and George both stared at her, shocked.

"But…but you can do anything!" George winced as he hit the ceiling again.

"I'm know, but this is something I can't do. Your only option is to spend all your time for the next few days, inventing a counter spell that hopefully works. And luckily for you, it's Friday, meaning tomorrow is Saturday and after Saturday comes-"

"Sunday, we know. So you just expect us to spend our weekend inventing a counter spell?" Fred asked her, feeling downhearted. This could take a bit more than a weekend.

"Will you help us? Please Hermione? I'll love you forever and ever!" George tried to give her the puppy eyes as well.

"I'm dating Fred not you George. They won't even remotely work on me."

"You mean my puppy eyes work on you?" Fred grinned and winked at Hermione, who rolled her eyes again.

"Fine. But what about sleeping? And eating?! What will we do Fred? What will we do?!" George was getting slightly hysterical. He grabbed Fred by the collar of his shirt and started shaking him madly.

"Oh my merlin! Food!"

"Well then you better get started on that counter spell." Hermione poked Fred in the stomach and turned around again, opened her bag and got out her homework. Fred poked her in the shoulder and she turned back around. "What?"

"Help usss!" Fred and George both whined.

"No."

"Please?"

"Pretty please?"

"No."

"With cherries on top?"

"No. Now go work out your counter spell." Hermione went back to her homework. Fred and George both sighed and bounced away to a corner to work on a counter spell. Ron, who had remained quiet the whole conversation, just stared at her. Even Mrs Weasley wasn't able to get them to go away when she wanted them to.

"What?" Hermione had noticed Ron staring at her, and glared at him. He put his hands up in defence and sat back. Harry also got out his homework and began looking over Hermione's shoulder for answers. She rolled her eyes for the third time in 10 minutes.

XxXxX

"IT'S CLOSE TO MIDNIGHT AND SOMETHING EVILS LURKING IN THE DARK!"

"Fred!"

"UNDER THE MOONLIGHT YOU SEE A SIGHT THAT ALMOST STOPS YOUR HEART!"

"FRED!"

"YOU TRY TO SCREAM BUT TERROR TAKES THE SOUND BEFORE YOU-"

"FRED SHUT YOUR MOUTH BEFORE I SHUT IT FOR YOU!" Hermione shouted. Fred went quiet and looked at her slightly scared.

"You wouldn't." He said, but he didn't seem so sure.

"Oh, I would." Hermione threatened. Fred stared at her with wide eyes, and gulped. George laughed at him and Fred gave him a look that clearly said 'if you don't shut up, I will stab you with my fork.' George gulped as well and went back to eating his shepherd's pie.

Harry was calmly eating his chicken, like a normal person, unlike Ron who was devouring his chicken at a rate no normal human would eat, was suddenly hit in the head with a flying potato.

"Ow! What the hell?" Harry rubbed his head and looked around to find the culprit. Hermione looked around also while Fred, George and Ron burst into laughter. But Ron's laughter ceased when he was also hit with an airborn potato. Fred and George missed their potatoes, because they were mid bounce. Unfortunately, they hadn't been able to fix their little problem, and they were both finding it hard to eat. George had already stabbed his hand twice with his knife.

Even Dumbledore hadn't been able to help. When he had noticed their bouncing, he had simply chuckled and winked at them. McGonagall had tutted at them and Flitwick had at least managed to stop them from hitting their heads on the ceiling but he wasn't able to fix it entirely.

"Why are potatoes flying at our heads?" Ron shouted, rubbing his head where the potato had hit him. Hermione laughed and pointed at almost every boy in the great hall, who were also rubbing their heads. It seemed that they all had been hit in the head with a potato. Hermione then pointed upwards at Peeves, who was hovering above them, with a bucket of potatoes in his hand.

"PEEVES!" Filch yelled, running into the hall and looking up at Peeves, who cackled and flew out of the Great Hall, still cackling. Umbridge stood up, as if to say something, before sitting down again, looking as if she had nothing to say, for once.

"Well. That was…eventful." Fred said. He then hiccupped really loudly, and everyone on the Gryffindor Table looked at him. "Merlin. Do these people have anything better to do than gawk at the goings on of this little group?" He asked the table, exasperatedly. The whole table, shrugged as one and went back to their food.

"You appear to have the hiccups Fred. You know what will fix that?" Hermione began.

"A kiss?" Fred interrupted. Hermione shook her head, but gave Fred a quick peck on the lips anyway.

"No. Hold your breath and count to twenty."

"But I might – hiccup - die! George! She's trying – hiccup - to kill me!"

"Fred, the girl said she loves you. Why the hell would she try to kill you?"

"I'm not trying to kill you, just fix your hiccups." Fred sighed and held his breath. He counted to twenty and kept going. He started turning blue and Hermione had to poke him in the cheek to get him to breathe again.

He hiccupped. "Damn. OW!" He had bounced too low this time and hit the floor too hard. This was not the best day for Fred…

**Okay so this is just like a little filler chapter while I decide exactly what problem I want to happen, because as you know, you can't have a good story without a big problem! **

**See you next Tuesday!  
Toodle Pip x**


	8. Harry's Outburst

**So, if anyone reads my other story, then you will already have seen this so you don't have to read this little note, but if you don't (please do :D) but this note is for you:**

If any of you are interested, there is a new competition I open for anyone who is interested in entering. It's called The Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition. Just enter this link: forum/The-Quidditch-League-Competition/134505. You can find more information like details if you PM_Fire in the Canon_, the creator of the competition.

Disclaimer: I had to steal some stuff from JK but I own nothing but the plot.

Fred was not a happy chappy. He had not seen Hermione all day and two of Umbridges Inquisitorial Squad had tried to take points from Gryffindor. Emphasis on _tried_. Graham Montague was almost finished taking points from Gryffindor, Fred and George had pushed him into a vanishing cabinet.

Just as they rounded the corner into the Entrance Hall, he saw Hermione, Harry and Ron coming out of the Great Hall.

"Hermione!" He shouted, running towards her and picking her up, swinging her around. She laughed and hugged him.

"Fred." George sighed. "You only saw her yesterday. It's not like it's been years."

"Felt like a century." Fred muttered. Hermione rolled her eyes, and kissed him on the cheek. "Do I only get a kiss on the cheek? Not a proper kiss?"

Hermione laughed and kissed him fully on the lips. "We were just heading back to the tower? Wanna come?" She asked when she pulled away. He looked at George and they nodded together.

She, Fred and George walked ahead while Harry and Ron fell behind, watching Hermione with Fred. It just seemed wrong to Harry. He had always thought it would be Ron and Hermione together, never would he have expected Fred. But all the same, he was happy for Hermione that she had found someone who had found someone that made her happy.

"Hey, so it's a Hogsmeade weekend this weekend." Fred nudged Hermione, throwing an arm around her shoulders.

"And?"

"Would you like to go with me?" George asked, grinning down at her. Hermione elbowed him in the stomach and his grin widened.

"Would you like to go with_ me_?" Fred corrected.

"Nah, I thought I would go with Bob." Hermione smiled.

"Who's Bob? What house is Bob in? I'll kill Bob." Fred growled, his arm around Hermione tightening.

"There is no Bob! It's a joke…" Hermione said quickly, before Fred went searching for someone called Bob. Obviously somebody doesn't understand sarcasm…

"Oh. So are you going with me?"

"Obviously. Why wouldn't I? But first I need to talk to Harry about something, because he might agree to something that affect Hogsmeade trip."

Fred turned his head to look at Harry who waved, smiling. He smiled back, slightly forcefully. Sometimes he thought that Harry might be competition for Hermione. He knew they were close, but how close exactly?

"What's wrong Fred?" Hermione asked, looking at him curiously.

"I think someone's jealous!" George sang, teasingly. Fred glared at him.

"I'm not jealous!"

"There is nothing going on between me and Harry." Hermione guessed.

"How did you know that was what I was going to say?! I might not have said that." Fred spluttered while George rolled his eyes.

"But you know it's true." Hermione said. Fred sighed and nodded. She laughed at his blushing face and kissed him quickly on the lips.

They had reached the common room and stepped through the portrait hole. Harry and Ron followed behind her. The five of them sat in chairs around the fireplace. Fred pulled Hermione onto his lap as she turned to Harry.

"So Harry, I have a suggestion. You don't have to agree but please listen to me."

"Okay…" Harry agreed slowly.

"Well I think we need to do something about Professor Umbridge."

"I say poison." Ron suggested. Hermione frowned at him and Fred grinned.

"No, I mean about what we learn about from her. I was thinking today…maybe the times come when we should just – just do it ourselves."

"Do what ourselves?" Harry asked suspiciously.

"Well – learn Defence Against the Dark Arts ourselves."

"You want us to do extra work?!" Ron groaned.

"No, this is much more important than work!" Hermione said.

Fred, George, Ron and Harry stared at her.

"But there's nothing more important that work!" Ron gasped feigning shock.

"Of course there is. It's about preparing ourselves, like Harry said in Umbridge's first lesson, for what's waiting for us out there. It's about making sure we really can defend ourselves. If we don't learn anything for a whole year – "

"We can't do much by ourselves." George said.

"No, but we are past the stage where we can just learn things out of books. We need a teacher, a proper one." Hermione agreed.

"If you're talking about Lupin…" Harry began.

"No, no I'm not talking about Lupin."

"Then who?" Harry frowned.

She sighed. "Isn't it obvious?"

"It's pretty obvious." Fred said.

"I think it's obvious." George agreed.

"It's not obvious!" Harry shouted.

"I'm talking about you Harry." Hermione rolled her eyes. Sometimes she wondered how he could be the smartest wizard in their year…

"About me what?" said Harry, still confused.

"I'm talking about you teaching us Defence against the Dark Arts."

Harry stared at her. Then he turned to Ron, and back again.

"That's an idea." Fred said, thinking.

"But I'm not a teacher."

"Harry, you're the best in our year and Defence."

"Me?" Harry was grinning now. "But you've beaten me in every test."

"Actually I haven't." Hermione said coolly. "You beat me in third year – the only year we both sat the test and had a teacher who actually knew the subject. But I'm not talking about test results. Think what you've done!"

"How d'you mean?"

"Let's think, you're first year – you saved the philosphers stone from You-Know-Who." George said stroking his chin thoughtfully.

"That was luck."

"Second year – you killed the Basilik and destroyed Riddle." Fred joined in.

"Yeah but if Fawkes hadn't turned up – "

"Third year – you fought off about a hundred Dementors at once." George got louder to talk over Harry.

"You know that was a fluke-"

"Last year – you fought off You-Know-Who again-" Fred almost shouted.

"Listen to me!" Harry said loudly. "Just listen to me alright? I sounds great when you say it like that, but all that stuff was luck – I didn't know what I was doing half the time, I didn't plan any of it, I just did whatever I could think of and I nearly always had help-"

Fred, George, Ron and Hermione were grinning at him and Fred could see Harry's temper start to rise. He snaked an arm around Hermione's waist protectively.

"Don't sit there grinning like you know better than I do, I was there, wasn't I?" He said heatedly. "I lnow what went on, all right? And I didn't get through any of that because I was brilliant at DADA. I got through because – because help came at the right time, or because I guess right – but I just blundered through it all, I didn't have a clue what I was doing - STOP LAUGHING!"

Their smiles vanished and Fred felt Hermione tense on his lap.

"You don't know what it's like! You – neither of you – you've never had to face him, have you? You think it's just memorizing a bunch of spells and throwing them at him, like you're in class or something? The whole time you're sure you know there's nothing between you and dying except your own - your own brain or guts or whatever - like you can think straight when you know you're about a second from being murdered, or tortured, or watching your friends die - they've never taught us that in their classes, what it's like to deal with things like that - and you two sit there acting like I'm a clever little boy to be standing here, alive, like Diggory was stupid, like he messed up — you just don't get it, that could just as easily have been me, it would have been if Voldemort hadn't needed me -"

"We weren't saying anything like that mate." Ron said looking horrified. "We weren't having a go at Diggory, we didn't – you've got the wrong end of the – " He exchanged a helpless look with Hermione, whose face was stricken.

"Harry," she said timidly, "don't you see? This…this is exactly why we need you…we need to know what it's really like…facing him…facing V-Voldemort."

It was the first time she had ever said his name and Fred could see it was this that calmed Harry down the most.

He simply nodded.

"I'm gonna head to bed. Coming?" Ron said, turning his head to look at Harry, who nodded again and followed him up to the dormitory.

"So. That was something…" Hermione muttered.

"Yeah, I guess it was." Fred and George agreed together.


	9. Meeting in Hogsmeade

**Heyo! This chapter will be split into two parts. First half: Meeting in the Hogshead. Second half: Fred and Hermione's date. I want that chapter to be kinda fluffy *throws edible fluff*. It might be a little bit fluffy or extremely fluffy. Depends on how you like your fluff. Anyway, that chapter will be the date in Hogsmeade. **

**I also realise that the Inquisitorial Squad wasn't set up till Dumbley-dore left but it just fitted with my story so it just had to be that way. **

**Disclaimer: This is another chapter with stuff stolen from JK but I acknowledge that it is her work not mine.**

**AND OH MY STARS 51 FOLLOWERS! THANK YOU GUYS!**

It had been a couple of days since Hermione had suggested her idea to Harry. But on Thursday afternoon, two days before Hogsmeade, she felt it best to bring it up again.

"I was wondering," Hermione said suddenly, "whether you thought anymore about Defence Against the Dark Arts, Harry."

"Course I have," Harry said grumpily, "Can't forget it, can we, with that hag teaching us-"

"I meant the idea of you teaching us."

Harry did not answer immediately. Instead he pretended to be extremely interested in the page in front of him about Asiatic Anti-Venoms, because he did not want to say what was on his mind.

"Well…" He started. "I have thought about it, a bit."

"And?" Hermione sat forward in her chair, eager to hear his answer.

"I dunno."

"I think it's a good idea." Ron said.

Harry shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "You did listen to what I said about a load of it being luck, didn't you?"

"Yes Harry," Hermione sighed. "But all the same, there's no point pretending that you're not good at Defence Against the Dark Arts, because you are. You were the only person last year who could throw off the Imperius Curse completely, you can produce a Patronus, you can do all sorts of stuff that even full grown wizards can't."

Harry shrugged uncomfortably.

"Well what do you think? Will you teach us?"

"Just you and Ron, yeah?"

"Well," Hermione paused, feeling slightly anxious momentarily. "Well…now don't fly off the handle again, Harry, please…but I really think you ought to teach anyone who wants to learn. I mean, we're talking about defending ourselves against V-Voldermort. Oh don't be pathetic, Ron. It doesn't seem fair if we don't offer the chance to other people."

Harry considered for a moment. "Yeah but I doubt anyone except you two would want to be taught by me. I'm a nutter remember?"

"Well, I think you'd be surprised how many people would be interested in hearing in what you've got to say. Now, look. You know this weekend is the trip to Hogsmeade. How would it be we tell anyone who's interested to meet us in the village and we can talk it over."

"Why outside school?" Ron asked.

"Because, I don't think Umbridge would be very happy if she found out what we were up to, do you?" Hermione raised an eyebrow at Ron.

Now Hermione just had to talk to Fred about possibly setting aside an hour or two of their date.

XxXxX

Hermione, Ron, Harry, Fred and George all walked together down to Hogsmeade. Fred was slightly unhappy about having to give up some time that he could be spending with Hermione, but it's what she wanted so he might as well go along with it.

He put an arm around her shoulder and kissed her on the head. She smiled up at him and he hugged her closer.

"You're being very affectionate all of a sudden." Hermione commented.

"What? Am I not allowed to be affectionate with my girlfriend on our date?" Fred grinned down at her. She shrugged and leant into him.

"So where are we going anyway? The Three Broomsticks?" Harry asked as they were getting into the heart of Hogsmeade Village.

"No, that's too obvious. Too much chance of being overheard. Instead we're going to go to the Hogshead." Hermione said. Harry nodded and turned to Ron, starting up another conversation about Quidditch.

They reached the Hogshead and pushed open the door. Immediately they were greeted with the smell of old drunk men, and something was definitely rotting in the corner. It was dark and dirty, the barman was cleaning glasses behind the bar with an already dirty cloth. Spreading the dirt. Lovely.

"Why the Hogshead? This place is just…blurgh." Ron said loudly. The barman shot him a dirty look and Ron's ears flushed red.

"The less people, less risk of being overheard by someone who might tell Umbridge. Oh look, the first few people!" Hermione pointed at the door as Ginny walked in with Michael Corner, with Dean Thomas following closely behind. Fred noted Seamus Finnigans absence, having heard of Harry and Seamus' fight.

Slowly the tiny pub filled with people of all different years and houses. The barman looked up in surprise at all the customers suddenly in his once quiet pub. He looked shocked to see his pub so full, especially since it was possible it had _never_ been so full.

"I thought you said only a couple of people wanted to come Hermione!" Harry exclaimed. She shrugged, grinning at Fred.

Fred turned to the bar and ordered a drink for everybody. "Oi! Cough up everybody, I can't pay for all of you!" He shouted to the crowded room. They all grumbled and each handed him 6 sickles, which he then gave the barman.

"Er," Hermione squeaked, her voice unusually high out of nerves. "Well – er – hi."

The group of around 25 people, quietened and all focused their attention on her, though eyes regularly darted over to Harry sitting next to her.

"Well…erm…well, you know why you're here. Erm…well, I had the idea that it might be good if people who wanted to study Defence Against the Dark Arts – and I mean, really study it, you know, not the rubbish that Umbridge is doing with us – " Hermione's voice got stronger as she got more confident. "-Because nobody can call that Defence Against the Dark Arts –" A strong 'hear, hear' sounded across the room. "-Well I thought that it would be good if we, well, took matters into our own hands."

She paused, look sideways at Harry and continued. "And what I mean by that is learning how to defend ourselves properly, not just in theory but doing real spells-"

"You want to pass you Defence OWL too, though, I bet?" Michael Corner interrupted.

"Of course I do," Hermione said at once. But more than that, I want to be properly trained in defence because…because…" she took a deep breath, "because Lord Voldermort is back."

The reaction was immediate and predictable. Cho Chang's friend shrieked and slopped Butterbeer down herself; Terry Boot gave a kind of involuntary twitch; Padma Patil shuddered, and Neville gave and odd yelp that he managed to turn into a cough.

"Nice save Longbottom." Fred muttered.

"Well that's the plan anyway," Hermione continued. "If you want to join us, we need to decide how we're going to-"

"Where's the proof You-Know-Who's back?" said the blonde Hufflepuff player in a rather aggressive voice.

"Well Dumbledore believes it-" Hermione began.

"You mean, Dumbledore believes him." The blonde boy nodded at Harry.

"Who are you?" Fred asked, rather rudely. He was getting annoyed with this boy being rude to Hermione.

"Zacharias Smith," The boy said, puffing out his chest proudly as if his name was something to be amazed at. "And I think we've got a right to know exactly what makes him say You-Know-Who's back."

"Look," Hermione intervened swiftly before Fred punched him. "That's not really what this meeting was supposed to be about – "

"It's okay Hermione." Said Harry, stepping forward. "What makes me say You-Know-Who's back? I saw him. But Dumbledore told the whole school what happened last year and if you didn't believe him, you won't believe me, and I'm not wasting an afternoon trying to convince anyone."

The whole group seemed to have held its breath while Harry spoke. Fred got the impression even the barman was listening. He had been wiping the same glass for about five minutes.

Zacharias scoffed loudly. "All Dumbledore told us last year was that Cedric Diggory got killed by You-Know-Who and that you brought Diggory's body back to Hogwarts. He didn't give us details, he didn't tell us exactly how Diggory got murdered and I think I speak for all of us when I say we would like to know."

"If you've come to hear exactly what it looks like when Voldermort murders someone I can't help you." Harry said, his temper visibly rising. "I don't want to talk about Cedric Diggory, alright? So if that's what you're here for, you might as well clear out."

He cast an angry look in Hermione's direction. Fred put an arm around Hermione protectively, watching to see if Harry lashed out at her. Nobody moved.

"So," Hermione squeaked again. "So, like I was saying, if you want to learn some defence then we need to work out how we're going to do it, how often we are going to – "

"Is it true," A girl with a long plait down her back interrupted, looking at Harry, "that you can produce a Patronus?"

There was a murmur of interest at this.

"Yeah." Harry said, slightly defensively.

"A corporeal Patronus? Like a proper stag?"

"Yeah."

"Blimey Harry!" Lee exclaimed, looking deeply impressed.

"Mum told Ron not to spread it around." Fred said, grinning at Harry. "She said you got enough attention as it was."

"She's not wrong." Mumbled Harry, and a couple of people laughed.

"And did you kill a Basilisk with that sword in Dumbledore's office?" demanded Terry Boot. "That's what one of the portraits on the wall told me when I was in there last year…"

"Er – yeah, I did."

A series of 'Wow's' went across the room.

"And in our first year, he saved that philophosus stone – "

"Philosophers." Hissed Hermione.

"Yeah, from You-Know-Who." Finished Neville.

"And that's not to mention," Cho chimed. "All the tasks he had to get through in the Triwizard Tournament last year – getting past dragons and merpeople and Acromantula and things…"

There was a murmur of impressed agreement around the room.

"Look," He said and everyone fell silent. "I…I don't want to sound like I'm trying to be modest or anything, but…I had help with all that stuff…"

"Not with the dragon, you didn't." Micheal Corner interrupted. "That was a seriously cool flying."

"Yeah, well – "

"And nobody helped you get rid of those Dementors this summer." Susan Bones said.

"No, no okay, I know I did bits of it without help, but the point I'm trying to make is – "

"Are you trying to weasel out of showing us any of this stuff?" Zacharias Smith sneered.

"Here's an idea," Ron said loudly, before Harry could speak. "Why don't you shut your mouth?"

"Well, we've all turned up to learn from him and now he's telling us he can't really do any of it." He said, frowning at Ron.

"That's not what he said." Fred snarled.

"Would you like us to clean out your ears for you?" enquired George, pulling a long and lethal looking metal instrument from Zonko's bag Lee had been carrying.

"Or any part of your body really. We're not fussy where we stick this." Fred growled stepping forward.

"Yes, well," Hermione interrupted hastily, putting a hand of Fred and George's arms. "Moving on…the point is, are we agreed we want to take lessons from Harry?"

There was a murmur of general agreement. Zacharias folded his arms and said nothing, though perhaps this was because he was currently too busy focusing on the lethal instrument in George's hand.

"Right." Hermione sighed in relief. "Well then, the next question is how often we do it. I really don't think there's any point in meeting less than once week – "

"Hang on," Angeline piped up. "We need to make sure this doesn't clash with our Quidditch practice."

"No," Cho agreed. "Nor with ours."

"Nor ours." Added Zacharias Smith.

"I'm sure we can find a night that suits everyone. But you know, this is rather important. I mean, we're talking about learning to defend ourselves against Voldermorts Death Eaters."

"Well said!" Barked Ernie Macmillan, who Fred had honestly been expecting to speak long before this. "Personally I think this is rather important, possibly more important than anything else we'll do this year, even with our OWLs coming up! I personally am at a loss to see why the Ministry has foisted such a useless teacher on us at this critical period. Obviously, they are in denial about the return of You-Know-Who, but to give us a teacher who is trying to actively prevent us from using defensive spells."

"We think the reason Umbridge doesn't want us trained in Defence is that she's got some mad idea that Dumbledore could use the students in the school as a kind of private army. She thinks he'd mobilize us against the Ministry." Hermione explained.

"Well that makes sense. After all, Cornelius Fudge has got _his_ own private army." Luna said dreamily.

"What?" Harry asked.

"No he hasn't." Hermione snapped.

"Yes he does." Luna argued.

"Hem Hem." Ginny coughed, in such a good imitation of Professor Umbridge that several people looked around in alarm and then laughed. "Weren't we trying to decide how often we're going to meet and have defensive lessons?"

"Yes, you're right Ginny." Hermione sighed, relieved someone was bringing back sense.

"Well, once a week sounds cool." Said Lee.

"As long as – " Angelina began.

"Yes, as long as it doesn't interrupt Quidditch. Well now we just have to decide where. We'll find somewhere. We'll send a message round when we've got a time and a place for the first meeting." Hermione rummaged in her bag and produced a parchment and quill.

"I think everybody should write their name down, just so we know who we are. If you sign this, you are agreeing to not tell Umbridge and that you are now part of this group." At everybody's hesitant looks she sighed. "Do you really think I would let anyone see this? I'm not gonna leave it lying around."

Fred reached for the paper and cheerfully wrote his signature. He handed it to George who attempted to hand it to Zacharias Smith, who didn't take it, still looking hesitant. George who got bored holding it had charmed it so it poked Smith in the eye. He sighed and grabbed the parchment, signing it reluctantly.

"Well time is ticking on." Fred said briskly, taking Hermione's hand. "Hermione, time for our date."


	10. The Date

**YAYAYAY fluffy scene! I was in a fluffy mood today, not actual fluffy, though that can happen. I have woken up with fluffy hair before…that was a surprise….anyway moving on…**

**Sorry it's late guys!**

**Oh and just a really important question: has anyone read a story on here about Lily and James and there are 3 characters in it called May, June and April and they are all triplets. That's all I can remember of the story but if you have can you PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell me! Because I have been searching for it for ages and I can't find it so now I am reaching out to you!**

Hermione grinned and followed Fred out of the Hogshead. It was nice to finally be out of that smoky, confined space.

"So, where to?" She asked him.

"I was thinking Madame Pudifoots. What do you think?" Fred joked, winking at her. She groaned and elbowed him.

"Urgh, not that place. It so stuffy and full of lovey dovey couples."

"Finally someone who agrees! All the girls I or George have ever taken out have always wanted to go there and it's just so….blargh." Fred made a face.

Hermione laughed. "Three Broomsticks then?" Fred nodded and put his arm around Hermione, leading her towards the pub. They walked in together and slid into a booth opposite each other.

Madame Rosmerta walked over immediately. "What can I get you?"

"2 butterbeers please." Fred ordered.

"That'll be six sickles."

Fred reached into his pocket and pulled out six sickles, and Hermione pulled out six as well.

"No, I'm paying for these 'Mione." Fred stopped her.

"No, I'll pay for it, its fine."

"No, really, I can pay." Fred insisted.

"Fred, let me pay."

"I'm paying Hermione."

"Fred." Hermione said, warningly. "Let me pay."

"How about you both pay?" Madame Rosmerta jumped in before an argument started.

"I feel that I should pay." Fred said firmly.

"Fine. You pay this round, I'll pay next round." Hermione gave in, muttering something about masculine insecurity. Fred laughed and handed Madame Rosmerta the money. She took it, rolling her eyes.

Hermione stuck her tongue out at Fred, and took her warm drink from Madame Rosmerta gratefully. Sipping it quietly, she looked up at Fred who was watching her with a strange look on his face.

"What?" She asked.

"Nothing."

"What?!"

"Nothing!"

"Tell me!" Hermione whined.

"Nothing!"

"Fred, what are you thinking?" She asked seriously,

Fred sighed. "I'm amazed."

"Amazed at what?"

"Amazed. Amazed that I'm sitting here, opposite the most beautiful girl that I've fancied the pants off for ages. And amazed that she's my girlfriend." He blushed and grinned sheepishly. Hermione blushed as well, looking down at her butterbeer.

"I'm not beautiful…"

"Never say that." Fred growled. "Never ever. You are the most beautiful girl and no one can ever change that. Don't you dare say that you aren't beautiful."

Hermione blushed again, harder this time. Fred laughed and reached over to stroke her cheek.

"I mean it, 'Mione. You are so _so _beautiful."

"Can we stop talking about it please?" She squeaked.

"Fine, but just start believing it okay?"

They sat in silence for a while, sipping their butterbeers. After about ten minutes later, Seamus Finnigan came in with Dean and Neville. They sat at the table next to Fred and Hermione's, Seamus giving Hermione a small smile. She smiled back and looked back at Fred. Fred however, remained looking at Seamus, who was still looking at Hermione with a strange look on his face. The same look he imagined, he had had on his face only minutes before.

Fred frowned and took Hermione's hand. "Come on, let's go for a walk." She nodded and got up, finishing the last gulp of her drink. Fred glared at Seamus, who looked away, finally paying attention to his friends.

They walked out of the pub and down the cobbled road. "Where do you wanna go?" Hermione asked.

"I don't know. Let's just walk, yeah? Wonder around."

Hermione nodded and snuggled closer to Fred, who put his arm around her pulling her close.

**Okay so this wasn't as long OR fluffy as I wanted it to be but I promised it would be Friday, Saturday or Sunday and here it is! I also promised two which I now realise I will not be able to do because of all the stuff I have to do. You would think, it now being the holidays that I would have time to do stuff but no, I am still just as busy. But because it is the holidays, any day I am free, I will be writing so I might not stick to the Tuesday schedule. **

**So sorry guys! Don't hate me!**

**Toodle Pip x**


	11. George's Turn

**Okay, as I broke my promise of two chapters in one, I am going to write a REALLY long one. My aim is 4000 words not including the authors note. But that means my chapter may drabble a bit so I will try my hardest to keep it interesting and may do some things with George's love life :) because who doesn't love George?! **

**Disclaimer: This chapter also involves some of J.K Rowlings work. Because this book has such important stuff in it, I have to use lots of her stuff in my chapters.**

"GEORGE-Y!" Fred shouted, running into the boys dormitory, at midnight. George bolted out of bed, grabbed his wand and pointed it at his brother. "Alright George, calm down, it's only me!"

"What are you doing Fred?! I could have killed you! I _would_ have killed you!" George exclaimed.

"No you wouldn't."

"Yes I would."

"You wouldn't."

"I would."

"But I'm your twin."

"But I don't know that in the middle of the night when I hear my name screamed at me."

"But…I'm your twin." Fred repeated.

"But I don't know that in the middle of the night when I hear my name screamed at me." George repeated.

"You should know me."

"Why are you only coming into the dormitory now anyway?" George asked. Fred grinned and sat down at the end of George's bed.

"Funny story really. It's quite long too. Are you sure you want to hear it all?"

"Tell me."

Fred took a deep breath. "Okay so, I was getting food from the kitchens and I came out, arms piled high with food and I dropped an éclair. As I'm bending down to pick it up, I drop all the other food. Can you believe it George? All that food, just wasted!"

"Why were you carrying it? Why didn't you levitate it? Are you wizard or not?"

"Shut up George, I'm telling my story." Fred frowned, silently kicking himself for not thinking of it earlier. "Anyway, as I'm bending down to pick it all up, I hear this cat. At first I think '_damn!'_ because I thought it was Mrs Norris. But then I see that it is only Crookshanks. But then I think '_damn!' _again because Crookshanks hates me."

"Crookshanks hates everybody."

"Indeed he does. Indeed he does George-y-boy. But he just ignores me and walks on. When I stand up, I step on his tail. He immediately spins around and starts attacking me! That's how I got these scars." He points to scars on his arm, that George can't see because it's dark. "So as we are rolling around on the floor, the cat hissing and screeching, me shouting and possibly swearing, another cat appears. And now I'm thinking, '_oh god, he's got minions!_' but then the cat transforms into Professor McGonagall. So now I have detention for two weeks for cat abuse and for being up late. _Cat Abuse!_ That's just ridiculous! And so I tell her that and she gives me another week's detention for sassing her. I refrain from telling her that I wasn't sassing her, which is lucky because she would have given me detention or something." Fred takes a deep breath and continues, glaring at George for laughing at him. "So by this time, I have 3 weeks detention, cat scratches and NO food. So, when she lets me go, finally, I run all the way to the Portrait Hole. The Fat Lady is sleeping, obviously, because you know, it's midnight. But of course, I needed to get in. _So_ I poked her."

"And?"

"_And_ she didn't really appreciate that. She started yelling at me for being up late, waking her up et cetera et cetera. I managed to shut her up, thankfully. When she final lets me in, I go and sit by the fire, you know, to look at my cat scratches which can you remind me to ask Hermione about? But anyway, I'm sitting by the fire and Neville comes down from his dormitory, talking to himself about some weird stuff. I wasn't really listening."

"Was he awake?"

"I don't think so. I think he was sleep walking and talking. Even so, he missed a step and fell down the stairs. Well he didn't fall, he sort of…bounced."

George burst out laughing, and Fred couldn't help laughing as well.

"He still didn't wake up?" George laughed.

"Nope. So then I came up here, you nearly killed me and asked me why I am only just coming in and I said it was a funny story and quite a long one-"

"Alright I was there for that bit." George interrupted.

"Yeah, well."

"So that's why you're up so late, but why were you so excited to come in to the room?"

"I'm always excited. So are you. We're the _Weasley Twins._" Fred pointed out, as if it were obvious. George nodded in agreement then groaned falling back onto his pillow.

"Can I go back to sleep please?"

"Yes, sorry. Go back to sleep." Fred said, and jumped off George's bed and ran to his own bed.

It took him ages to get to sleep. Maybe it was because of the sugar he had had in the kitchens before leaving or maybe it was just because he just wasn't tired. But it was probably because he was too busy thinking about a certain bushy haired girl who he still couldn't believe he was with.

XxXxX

George woke up and immediately fell out of bed. He tried to sit up, only to find he was tangled in his bed sheets with no apparent way of escaping. So he just lay on the floor wiggling a bit, feebly. Fred laughed when he came out of the bathroom and found his brother on the floor.

"How did you end up like that?" Fred asked, laughing.

"I don't know. I've always been an untidy sleeper."

"When you get married, you and your wife will have to have separate beds or she'll freeze." Fred joked.

"Hmmm. If I get a wife." George muttered, and Fred pretended not to hear, for the sake of his brother's dignity.

"Come on, get up. BREAKFASTTTTT!" Fred shouted, clapping his hands together loudly.

"Oh shut up! Help me up." George groaned, sticking out a hand. Fred ignored his hand and tugged a corner of George's bed sheet, sending him spinning. George yelled out, and landed heavily on the ground, hitting his head on the floor. He clambered up from the ground, socking his twin in the arm. Fred laughed and threw George's clothes at him.

George got dressed quickly and followed Fred down the stairs and out the portrait hole. They met Hermione in the doors to the great hall and they both slung their arms around her shoulders.

"Ello Hermione." They said together.

"Morning." She reached up and kissed Fred on the cheek.

"Do I not get a kiss?" George asked, feigning hurt.

Hermione laughed and kissed George on the cheek as well. George grinned at his brother and poked his tongue out at him.

"George, why do you have a huge bump on your head?" Hermione asked, reaching up and touching it.

George winced. "I don't know. It could have something to do with Fred spinning me into the air this morning." He glared at Fred, who shrugged.

"It's not my fault, you asked me to help you up."

"Wha…why? Oh Never mind." Hermione sighed, smiling.

They reached sat down at the table next to Harry, Ron and Ginny. Hermione took the plate of pancakes that George was about to take and he looked at her, obviously trying to say _'if you don't put it down I will eat you_'.

Hermione glared at him, with a much scarier look. "I genuinely _will_ eat you George."

"Fredddd." George whined. "Your girlfriends threatening to eat meeeee."

"Hey, you threatened me first!"

"With a look. You actually said it!"

"Children, children. Calm down. I want the pancakes." Fred said, snatching the plate of pancakes out of Hermione's hand and pouring maple syrup over them. He started eating, only to look up and see Hermione glaring at him. He took the top pancake and put it on another plate, before sheepishly handing the plate to Hermione.

She smiled happily and took the plate from Fred, eating the pancakes herself.

"Fredddd! I'm your brother!" George whined again.

"Yeah, but you have to love me. You're my twin. So I don't necessarily have to do everything for you. But it would be unchivalrous if I didn't give Hermione the pancakes."

"What?" Ron asked.

"Oh little Ronny. One day, when you get a girlfriend you will understand what I mean." Fred patted his brother on the head. Ron frowned and elbowed Harry.

"Ow. What did you elbow me for?!" Harry rubbed his side where Ron had elbowed him.

"I can't reach Fred."

"So that means you elbow me?!"

"Yup."

"Oh little Harry. One day you will learn how Ron's brain works." Fred patted Harry's head too. The only problem with that was Harry could actually reach Fred, and he took great pleasure in elbowing Fred, hard, in the stomach.

"Ow! Harry!"

Harry poked his tongue out at Fred cheekily.

"So what am I supposed to have for breakfast?" George asked, still stuck on the pancakes topic.

Angelina sat down next to George and rolled her eyes. "Look at the table George. It is _filled_ with food."

George smiled at Angelina and put his arm around her. "Ello Angel."

"Don't call me Angel." Angelina said, shrugging his arm off. George raised his hands in defence and grabbed a plate of bacon. "Just bacon? You realise you have to be fit to play Quidditch George." She took the bacon from George and hid it.

"Angelina! Not the bacon!"

"_No_ _bacon_. You too Harry." She took the bacon from Harry, who followed it with his eyes longingly. Fred realised she was gonna come for him next and quickly hid his bacon on Hermione's plate. She gave him a look, before rolling her eyes.

"Eat these instead." Angelina instructed, handing them each a plate of eggs and toast.

"Just toast? Angelina, I'll starve!" George made a face at the dry toast.

"It's healthier than _bacon_."

"Bacon's tastier."

"Bacon's disgusting."

George gasped. "How could you say such a horrible thing?!"

"I speak the truth George."

"You tell lies!"

"I tell truths." Angelina argued.

"Is truths a word?" George questioned.

"Yes. If it wasn't it, it is now."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "You're like an old married couple."

"We are not." They both said together, turning to face Ginny.

Ginny laughed. "Look, Angelina one day of bacon won't hurt. George stop arguing. Now both of you, apologise."

Angelina sighed grumpily and handed George his bacon. George grinned and ate it happily.

"Sorry George."

"Sorry Angelina."

"Good. Now be quiet and eat your breakfast."

"You would make a great mum, Gin." Harry said. Ginny looked up at him and Harry blushed slightly.

"Come on Harry, Ron. Let's go to class." Hermione smiled, standing up, giving Fred his bacon. She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and left, Harry and Ron following behind.

XxXxX

"Get the mice Miss Brown." McGonagall ordered. "Oh don't look like that, their just mice."

Lavender made a face, before getting up and getting the mice out of the cupboard. She handed them around to everyone and sat back down, still making a disgusted face.

"Okay, today we are going to be turning these mice into plates. No Longbottom, the plate is not allowed to have a tail." She said, answering Nevilles unasked question. He shut his mouth quickly and put his hand down. "Now, this is slightly complicated magic, so I will demonstrate first."

She waved her wand and muttered the spell and the mouse squeaked and turned into an ornate china plate.

"Like so. Now, your turn." She said, turning to sit behind her desk and the class got to work.

Hermione, of course, mastered it immediately, making a beautiful china plate. Seamus managed to make a brown plate that promptly blew up in his face.

"At least I made a plate!" He cheered. Dean clapped him on the back and continued trying to make a plate.

Harry and Ron sat talking about Umbridge while casually attempting to transfigure their mice occasionally.

"You will never learn anything if you don't try." Hermione was about to launch into a lecture but Ron stopped her.

"Don't start lecturing us Hermione. We get it, you're smart, we're not." Ron groaned.

"That's not true Ron, and you know it." Hermione argued. Ron gave her a sceptical look and frowned at his mouse, trying to get it to turn into a plate. Hermione sighed, slightly annoyed and continued turning her mouse into a plate and back again.

XxXxX

"I can't believe you got twenty points just for working out the counter-curse." Ron complained as they walked out of class.

"It's not that hard Ron."

"For you!" Ron scoffed. Hermione rolled her eyes at him and grabbed his arm, pulling him towards the great hall.

"Come on, food is so close."

Ron's eyes brightened and he practically ran the rest of the way. Harry and Hermione laughed and followed after him. They reached the Great Hall, a few minutes later after Ron. When they sat down next to him, he had already piled his plate high with shepherd's pie.

Ginny joined the table a few minutes later and sat down in the empty seat opposite Harry.

"Hey, Harry, when's the first DA meeting going to be?" Ginny leaned forward, whispering quietly.

"I was thinking maybe Wednesday, at 7 o'clock." Harry replied.

"You found somewhere?"

"Dobby showed us the Room of Requirement and it's perfect."

"Dobby?"

"The elf who tried to kill Harry in second year." Ron said.

"He didn't try – alright he tried to kill me. But it was for my own good. Sort of. He didn't want me getting killed by Voldermort." Harry tried to defend Dobby, giving up. Dobby was a bit weird…

"Basically his logic was 'If I kill him, You-Know-Who can't.'" Ron said. Ginny laughed while Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Do you want me to spread the word?" Ginny offered, getting up, grabbing a sandwich to take with her.

"Yeah, thanks. But quietly!" Harry called after her as she walked away from them to tell Michael Corner.

Ron watched her with his eyes. "Who's this Michael Corner then?"

"Ginny's boyfriend." Hermione said as if it was obvious.

"He's WHAT?" Ron spluttered, his ears bright red. "She's going out with – my sisters going – when did this – when did she - ?"

"They met at the Yule Ball and got together at the end of last year." Hermione said in a bored voice. She reached for another slice of chicken, while Ron still spluttered to himself.

"But, I thought Ginny fancied Harry!"

Hermione looked at him rather pityingly and shook her head.

"Ginny _used _to fancy Harry, but she gave up on him months ago. Not that she doesn't like you of course." She added kindly Harry.

"So that's why she talks now?" He asked Hermione. "She never used to talk in front of me."

"Exactly."

Ron was turning redder by the second.

"Ron," She said severely. "This is exactly why Ginny hasn't told you she's seeing Michael, she knew you'd take it badly. So don't harp on about it, for heaven's sake."

"What do you mean? Who's taking anything badly? I'm not going to harp on about anything…" He continued to mutter to himself under his breath.

Hermione shared a look with Harry, then said in an undertone. Talking about Michael and Ginny…what about Cho and you?"

"What d'you mean?" Harry said quickly.

Harry blushed.

"She's looking at you now, mate." George said, arriving at the table and sitting down opposite him. Harry looked up at him and Fred nodded in Cho's direction.

Harry turned to face Cho who waved slightly at him. He waved back and George and Hermione laughed at his red face.

"You should ask her out. There's another Hogsmeade weekend on Valentines day." Hermione suggested.

"That's in two months!" Harry whined.

XxXxX

Fred and George arrived in the Room of Requirement just after Ginny, Neville, Lavender, Parvati and Dean.

"Whoa," Dean stared around, clearly impressed. "What is this place?"

Harry began to explain but people kept arriving and he had to start all over again. By the time, 7 o'clock arrivd, every cushion on the ground was occupied. Harry moved across to the door and turned the key protruding from the lock; it clicked in a satisfyingly loud way and everybody fell silent, looking at him.

"Well." Said Harry, slightly nervously. "This is the place we have found for practice sessions, and you've – er – obviously found it okay."

"It's fantastic!" Cho exclaimed and several people murmured their agreement.

"It's bizarre," Fred said, frowning around at it. "We once hid from Filch in here, remember George? But it was just a broom cupboard then…"

"Well, I've been thinking about the sort of stuff we ought to do first and – er - " Hermione raised her hand. Harry looked at her and rolled his eyes. "What, Hermione?"

"I think we ought to elect a leader." Hermione said.

"Harry's leader." Cho pointed out at once.

"Okay. A name then. It would promote a feeling of team spirit and unity, don't you think?"

"Can we be the Anti – Umbridge League?" Angelina suggested hopefully.

"Or the Ministry of Magic are Moron's Group?" suggested Fred.

"I was thinking," Hermione said, frowing at Fred, "more of a name that _didn't_ tell everyone what we were up to so we can refer to it safely outside meetings."

"The Defence Association? D.A for short, so nobody knows what we're talking about?" Cho said.

"Yeah, the D.A's good." Ginny mused. "Only let's make it stand for Dumbledore's Army, because that's the Ministry's worst fear, isn't it."

There was a great deal of appreciative murmuring and laughter at this.

"All in favour of the D.A?" said Hermione, bossily. "That's a majority – motion passed!"

She pinned the piece of parchment with all their signatures on it to the wall and wrote across the top in large letters: DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY.

"Right," said Harry, when she had sat down again. "Shall we get practicing then? I was thinking, the first thing we should do is Expelliarmus, you know the Disarming Charm. I know, I's pretty basic but I've found it really useful – "

"Oh please," Zacharias Smith spoke up, rolling his eyes and folding his arms. "I don't think Expelliarmus is exactly going to help us against You-Know-Who, do you?"

"I've used it against him," Harry said quietly. "It saved my life in June."

Smith opened his mouth stupidly. The rest of the room was silent.

"But, if you think it's beneath you, you can leave." Harry said.

Smith did not move, nor did anybody else.

"Okay." Harry clapped his hands together. "I reckon we should all divide into pairs and practice."

Everybody got to their feet at once and divided up.

"One – two – three!" Harry shouted.

The room was suddenly full of shouts of Expelliarmus. Wnds flew in all directions; missed spells hit books on shelves and set them flying into the air. George waved his wand lazily, sending Fred's wand flying into the air. Once Fred retrieved it, George nodded in Zacharias Smith's direction and winked at Fred.

He pointed his wand at Smith's back and muttered a hex. Smith opened his to disarm Anthony Goldstein but his own wand flew out of his hand. Smith, looked extremely confused and retrieved his wand. He tried again, but this time Fred hexed him again.

Harry turned and noticed the twins several feet away.

"Sorry, Harry." George said hastily, when Harry caught his eye. "Couldn't resist."

Fred grinned at Harry. Harry rolled his eyes and went around the room, helping people. He eventually called everything to a stop, and blew his whistle.

Everyone lowered their and turned their attention to Harry.

"That wasn't bad," Harry called. "But there's definite room for improvement." Zacharias Smith glared at him. "Let's try again."

They spent another 10 minutes before Hermione pointed to the clock.

"Hey Harry, have you checked the time?"

He looked at his watch and was shocked to see it was already ten past ten, which mean they needed to get back to their common rooms immediately or risk being caught by Filch for being out of bounds.

The last few people finished practice and the last couple of wands clattered to the floor.

"Well, that was pretty good, but now we have to finish." Harry called. "Same time, same place next week?"

"Sooner!" Dean Thomas called and many people nodded in agreement.

Angelina, however, said quickly. "The Quidditch season's about to start, we need team practices too!"

"Let's say next Monday night, then." Harry said.

Everyone nodded in agreement and started to leave in groups of three.

"So, Angelina." George said, slinging his arm around her shoulders. "That was a good lesson don't ya think?"

"Yeah, it was good." Angeline agreed, shrugging his arm off. George pouted at her and gave her the puppy eyes. Angelina smiled and let him put his hand back on her shoulders.

George grinned and kept his arm around her.

"So, can I eat bacon yet?"

"No."

"Angelinaaaa." George whined.

"Georgeeee." Angelina imitated his tone. He stuck his tongue out at her and pouted again. She rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"But…bacon."

"But…fitness."

"But…Angelina…it's bacon."

"I don't care. Quidditch is more important." Angelina said.

"Angelina!" George gasped. "Nothing is more important than bacon!"

Angelina glared fiercly. George cowered away slightly.

"Nothing is more important than Quidditch."

"Nothing?" George asked, his voice quiet.

"Nothing."

"Not even love?"

"Well. When I say 'nothing' I mean like…I mean…urgh." Angelina gave up trying to explain.

"Because I know love is more important." George said, stopping in the corridor. Angelina stopped too and turned to face him.

"How do you know if you love someone, George?" She asked seriously.

"You know you love someone when no matter what you do, you can't get them out of your head. When you will do anything just to get their attention, even if it means doing something completely out of character, that makes you look like a complete idiot. When if they just look at you, you feel like you're walking on a cloud. When you hate the idea of them being with other people. When you realize you would do anything so long as it makes them happy, then I'd say you're in love."

George stood rather awkwardly after his little speech. Angelina shifted her feet slightly, opened her mouth to say something, shut it quickly. George, sighed. If the Weasley twins were anything - other than troublemakers that is – they were straightforward. He leaned forward, put his hand on Angelina's cheek softly, and kissed her. It was a frantic but passionate kiss. George felt like his whole body was on fire. He was finally kissing the girl he had dreamt of for years and it was amazing.

She put her hand up and ran it through his hair as he put his other hand behind her head, pulling her closer. When they finally pulled apart, his hair was very messy and her lips were very swollen.

Angelina looked like she had absolutely nothing to say. And George, for once, was speechless.

"So…ummm…" George said slowly.

"Yeah…" Angelina nodded, chewing her lip.

"That was…"

"Yeah…" Angelina repeated. "Well we should…" She pointed behind her, signalling they should continue walking. George nodded in agreement and together they started walking, quietly, neither of them saying a word.

XxXxX

"Urgh Fred is was horrible!" George groaned as he fell head first onto his bed.

"I thought you said the kiss was good?" Fred asked, confused.

"Not the kiss! The walk back!" George turned over to face the ceiling.

"Oh. You should have talked to her."

"I know what I should have done! But it was just so awkward!"

"Well, ask her out tomorrow." Fred suggested.

"But what if she won't speak to me?" George asked worriedly.

"Make her speak to you."

"What do you mean?"

"Make it spectacular."

"How do I do spectacular?!"

"Fireworks." Lee suggested. To be honest, George had forgotten he was there…

"No, Lee." Fred frowned. "We are not risking it. They aren't safe yet."

George sighed. "It has to be spectacular."

"Fantastic." Fred grinned.

"Fantastic." George grinned.

**Oh. My. Stars. 4000 words. 11 pages. I have spent so much time on this guys! I wanted to update on time, but I think I overestimated myself and underestimated the amount of time it would take to type 4000 words. But I am starting the next chapter right now, so that I can update next chapter on time!**

**Thanks guys for sticking with me!**

**Remember to press that little button that says review!**

**Toodle Pip x **


	12. Something Spectacular

**I hope you all enjoyed my 4000 word chapter! This one **_**won't **_**be 4000 words, because I need a rest. Like seriously, that was **_**tiring**_**!**

"Something spectacular. Something spectacular." George kept muttering to himself has he got ready to go down to breakfast.

"It'll be fine." Fred tried to reassure his brother as they walked down to breakfast.

"What if she says no?" George was wringing his hands frantically. "Something spectacular. Something spectacular."

Fred patted his twin on the back. He spotted Angelina walking into the Great Hall and nodded in her direction. George paled and slowed walking.

"I don't think I can do this."

"Yes you can. Come on." Fred put his arm around George and pulled him into the Great Hall.

"No Fred…please…I don't think I can do this…I need to lie down."

"No you don't. I'm your twin remember? You need to do this. For yourself and her."

"But it has to be spectacular! I can't do spectacular."

Fred stopped and gasped. "We are the Weasley twins. We are always spectacular. I don't ever want to hear you say that again. Now straighten that tie, raise that chin and get in there. Ask that girl out and make it spectacular."

George sighed and took a huge breath. He straightened his tie, stood up straight, grinned cockily at Fred and strode into the Great Hall and straight up to Angelina.

He tapped her on the shoulder and she jumped up to face him. He smiled at her before getting down on one knee.

The whole hall fell silent and stared at the pair. Angelina blushed and looked down at George who was holding out a ring.

"Oh my merlin!" Angelina gasped, putting a hand on her chest.

"Angelina Johnson. This is a promise ring. A promise, that if you agree to go out with me, I promise to be the best, the one, the only boyfriend you will ever have. And I promise to remain faithful for as long as I live, and love you and protect you and keep you safe, for as long as I live. So, what do you say?" There was a moment of silence after George's speech. Angelina stood staring at George's hand where he held the ring.

"I…George of course I will!" Angelina shouted happily, flinging her arms around George's neck. He stood up and kissed her. The whole hall cheered and applauded the new couple. George's ears blushed red as he pulled away, still holding Angelina in his arms. He grinned down at her and she smiled shyly back up at him.

"Looks like the school knows." He whispered in her ear. He slid the ring onto her finger and she grinned at him and buried her head in his chest, trying to hide her blush.

Once they had sat down, Angelina still blushing furiously, Dumbledore stood and walked to his podium, clapping his hands together to get attention. The whole hall turned to face him.

"Thank you Mr Weasley for that little _display_." His eyes twinkled as he smiled kindly at the pair. "I wish you luck and my congratulations. Continue with your breakfast, and enjoy your lessons!" After his little speech, Dumbledore took a seat and continued eating his breakfast. He winked at George who grinned back before turning to his friends.

"Aw George that was so sweet!" Alicia said. She hugged Angelina and congratulated them both.

"Yeah, George! It was really romantic!" Katie agreed, also hugging Angelina.

Hermione elbowed Fred. "Why didn't you do something like that?"

"Ow! I wanted to, but you ran off remember?!" Fred argued, rubbing his side where she elbowed him.

Hermione frowned, pouting at him. He mock – pouted back at her.

"Just wait till Valentines Day. You just wait." He grinned at her. She smiled excitedly and kissed his cheek.

XxXxX

Fred walked into the Transfiguration classroom and groaned. He was happy for George, he really was, but Angelina was in his spot. His chair. His seat. His spot.

He gagged as George and Angelina nuzzled noses and smiled soppily at each other. If it was one of those muggle carfloons, their pupils would be replaced by love hearts, which sounded extremely painful and uncomfortable, in Fred's opinion. He decided not to interrupt the pair, even though it was quite sickening. He pulled out the chair on the other side of George and sat down. Lee arrived and sat next to Fred, pretending to vomit when he saw the pair of them.

Fred rolled his eyes at Lee and slumped down in his seat. He wished Hermione was here.

"Mr Weasley, Miss Johnson. Please stop looking at each other and look at me. I am trying to teach a lesson." Professor McGonagall said for the fourth time that lesson. George and Angelina quickly sprung apart, blushing furiously.

Fred laughed, and continued turning his eyebrows green and back again. Lee was casually growing his goatee out and shrinking it. He stopped at a length just off his chin and smiled happily at himself in the mirror.

"Nice beard Lee." George complimented. "Though, I have to say, my beard is much better." He pointed to his face where he was sporting a Dumbledore – length, ginger beard.

Lee laughed and waved his wand. George's beard wrapped itself around his neck and attempted to strangle him. George choked and made his beard disappear. He pointed his wand at Lee and made his ears grow. They continued to grow until they got so heavy that Lee couldn't hold his head up and his head slammed down on the desk.

Lee frowned and shrank his ears back to their normal size. He was about to transfigure something on George again when Fred jumped in, turning both their heads into turnips.

"Mr Weasley!" Professor McGonagall scolded. "That is highly inappropriate! Detention tonight with me at 8 o' clock. But that was some excellent transfiguration. Well done." She didn't smile once, even when she was complimenting him.

"Oh come on Minnie! You don't want to give me detention." Fred pleaded.

"Do not call me Minnie. It's Professor to you."

"But think about it Minnie. Pro-fess-or. Min-nie. It's so much quicker."

"That is not a valid excuse. Back to work."

Fred sighed and continued transfiguring his eyebrows.

"Mmhmhmmhmh." George and Lee said.

"Pardon?" Fred cupped his ears.

"Mmhmmmhmmmhmm mhmmh mamahhmmm!"

"I don't understand you sorry." He grinned at them. George pointed to Fred's wand and then at his turnip head.

"Oh, you want me to turn you back again? Sorry, I don't know the incantation." He shook his head at the pair.

The both glared at him, well he thought they did, he couldn't really tell. He laughed at started to change his nose.


	13. The Fainting Fancies

**For the first time for two weeks I managed to update on time! Now I am trying to get back into my old routine so I can update on time regularly :)**

**P.S If you're a whovian, like moi, you will spot a little Doctor Who reference in the first paragraph and further in the story. See if you can spot them :D**

* * *

Fred and George were hiding behind a tapestry on the seventh floor, from their girlfriends. They had been spotted by Hermione, giving a group of first years a few fainting fancies. When she had started to walk towards them with an angry look on her face, they had basically…run. Run as far away as possible and hid.

Fred was panicking. George was panicking. If they knew Hermione, and they knew Hermione, they knew she would either find them herself – and that was scary enough – _or_ go and get Angelina and they could team up and kill the twins.

"She is going to kill us!" Fred exclaimed, running a hand through his ginger hair.

"To damn right she will! And Angelina! She's always loved the little people!" George agreed.

"The little people?!" Fred laughed.

"Yeah, the midgets."

"You can't call them midgets!"

"Alright, the small ones." George sighed, exasperatedly.

"You make them sound like a completely different species!"

"Either way, Angelina and Hermione both love the small ones and both throw some pretty good hexes!"

"Oh if Hermione could hear you call them the small ones…" Fred muttered.

Suddenly the tapestry they were hiding behind was ripped back and two, extremely angry girls stood before them. Hermione was tapping her foot, and Angelina was tapping her wand menacingly against her arm.

"The small ones?" Angelina asked.

"H-hey babe." The two boys stammered.

"The _small ones?!_" Hermione repeated.

"He was just jok-" Fred went to defend his brother but was cut off.

"Don't defend him." Angelina snapped.

"Sorry." Fred took a step back, away from the girls.

"So-"

"Was there something-"

"That you two sweet-"

"Beautiful-"

"Amazing-"

"Girls, wanted?" The twins asked.

"Yes. A word." Hermione said.

"A word about what?"

"We haven't done anything." Fred and George were attempting the 'deny everything' tactic. It didn't appear to be working.

"You were feeding _fainting fancies _to_ first years_!"

"The small ones." George whispered quietly.

"It's not illegal!" Fred argued, ignoring George.

"It's against school rules! That's illegal enough!" Angelina pointed out.

"No harm came to them!" George said.

"A girl hit her head! She's in the Hospital Wing for concussion!" Hermione glared at the twins.

"Other than her. No harm came to the others!"

Hermione and Angelina started counting down on their fingers, reciting the students who had hurt themselves, whilst being a tester for their sweets. Fred and George rolled their eyes, and tuned out. They jumped back into focus when Angelina poked them with her wand.

"Sorry yes, you were saying?" Fred nodded back into attention.

"A grand total of 15 first years have been injured!"

"It can't be 15." George said.

"Why can't it?"

"Because we've only made 6 fainting fancies."

"Then how have 15 people gone into the Hospital Wing saying – and I quote – 'I took a sweet from the Weasley twins'. What other sweets have you made?" Angelina asked.

"They may have taken one of our nosebleed nougats."

"Nosebleed nougats?" Hermione tilted her head in question.

"Nougats that make you have a nosebleed." George explained in a bored voice, giving Hermione a 'duh' look. Hermione narrowed her eyes at him and he took a step back.

"Or a fever fudge. Was one of those people Roger Davies?" Fred asked.

"I don't know! I didn't ask names!" Angelina said. "Why?" She asked suspiciously.

"No reason." Fred squeaked, stepping back also. "George, your girlfriends scaring me." He whispered.

"Right back at you brother." George whispered back.

"We don't mean to scare you." The girls said sweetly, smiling at the twins. "Just kill you."

"Well, could you maybe – "

"Stick to the scaring?" The twins gulped, unable to take any more steps back.

"But where's the fun in that?"

"It can be lots of fun."

"For example – "

"The time that we _scared_ McGonagall by jumping out of a cupboard and shouting boo." Fred said.

"Or the time when we _scared _Flitwick by making him float." George added.

"They were fun, and we only _scared _them." The twins said together.

Hermione rolled her eyes and Angelina frowned.

"Personally, I think, that you couldn't kill us." Fred said.

"Oh, why's that then?" Angelina asked, taking a menacing step forward.

"Because you love us too much?" George squeaked.

"Hmmm…maybe." Hermione agreed. She stuck her arm out to grab Fred's arm and he flinched back. "I'm not going to kill you. Come on, I want you to show me how you make these sweets."

"Hermione! You've gone to the dark side!" Angelina gasped.

"I just want to know how they're made!" She defended. Leaning closer to Angelina she added, "If I know how they're made, then I can work out how to stop them."

Angelina nodded and grabbed George. He struggled slightly, worried that she still wanted to kill them.

"I'm not going to kill you either." Angelina rolled her eyes. George softened and wrapped his arms around her. Just as she relaxed into the hug, he picked her up and slung her over his shoulder, fireman style. "Let me down!" She shouted, laughing, gently slamming her fists against his back.

George just laughed evilly, running off down the corridor. Fred and Hermione watched them go both rolling their eyes. George turned around and winked at Fred who grinned back.

Hermione poked Fred in the chest and he jumped, looking down at her. "Show how you make them."

He grinned at her and tapped his nose. "Spoilers."

Hermione frowned at him. "Please tell me! I can help make sure they're safe." She offered, giving him the pleading puppy dog eyes.

"I think we can manage." He said.

"Humph." Hermione huffed and crossed her arms.

Fred put his arm around Hermione and pulled her close. "Don't be mad 'Mione. We will come to you if we need you but right now we are managing."

Hermione smiled lightly and leant into Fred. He kissed her forehead and led her back to Gryffindor Tower.

* * *

**Did you spot the DW references? If you did, you can have fifteen hugs from me!**

**Toodle Pip xx**


	14. Guess How Much I Love You

**I am a chapter ahead of when I have to update! This means I won't be updating late for a couple of weeks! Yay! **

**I want to say a really big thank you to everyone who is following this story, or who have favourite my story! It really means a lot to me and I am so excited because it is sooooo close to 100 followers! And also everyone who reviewed last chapter :) **

**Since I want to move on with the story quite quickly and get to Christmas, this chapter will be lots of short moments spread across a couple of weeks. But that means that we can get through things quicker and get the most interesting stuff!**

**On with the story!**

* * *

"Why him though? I could take it if it was _any_ other guy! Because then it wouldn't be a problem if I asked her out after they broke up but it's my brother!" Ron complained, groaning into his pillow.

"I know Ron, I know." Harry muttered. He wasn't really listening. He was reading a book on defence, so he could plan the next DA lesson.

"I can't ask her out when they break up and she'll never know how I feel because I can't tell her!"

"Wait, _when_ they break up? You think they'll break up?" Harry's attention was caught and he turned his head to face Ron.

"Well, yeah. She's only fifteen, he's seventeen and he's leaving soon so they can't stay in touch."

"Ever heard of an owl?" Harry said sarcastically.

Ron stuck his tongue out at Harry. "That's not the point. A long distance relationship is hard to keep up. They'll break up, but I will still have to keep my feelings quiet and it's gonna kill me."

Harry had to admit he was slightly surprised. Ron was always the type to keep his feelings to himself and be all tough like a regular guy. He bottled everything up and then shouted about something and was happy again. He wasn't normally the type to have soppy talks about feelings.

"I don't really know what to suggest Ron. But its Christmas soon, and that'll cheer you up!" Harry said brightly.

That took Ron's mind off it. He grinned happily, as he was still a four year old at heart when it came to Christmas.

"What do you want for Christmas Harry?" He asked.

"I don't know. I expect I'll probably get a jumper from your mum." He grinned and Ron grinned back slightly sheepishly. "And probably some tooth breaking fudge from Hagrid. That's basically my Christmas summed up."

Ron laughed and they sat talking about Christmas for the rest of the evening.

XxXxX

"I hate Umbridge. How dare she ban you when you didn't even do anything?!" Hermione exclaimed angrily when Harry, Fred and George got back to the common room after the Slytherin/Gryffindor match. Harry, Fred and George where all wearing matching scowls.

"It's not my fault I didn't." Fred scowled. "I would've pounded the little jerk to a pulp if you three hadn't been holding me back." He glared at Angelina, Alicia and Katie.

Angelina sighed grumpily. "I'm going to bed. Maybe this will turn out to be a bad dream…maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and we haven't played yet." She continued to mutter to herself all the way up the stairs. She was soon followed by Alicia and Katie.

Harry and Ginny soon followed. Only Fred and Hermione were left beside the fire.

"I hate them. I hate them all." Fred muttered darkly.

"Angelina, Alicia and Katie didn't do anything." Hermione said, confused.

"Not them, Umbridge and Malfoy and all the Slytherin filth."

"Fred, I get that you are angry but if you go about calling them filth, what makes you better than them?" Hermione said sharply.

Fred frowned at her. She was right, he knew she was right. Didn't mean he wanted to know it.

"Have you seen Ron?" Hermione asked in a low voice.

Fred shook his head.

"I think he's avoiding us." Hermione sighed. Just at that moment the Fat Lady creaked and swung open and Ron came clambering through the portrait hole. He was very pale and there was snow in his hair.

"Where have you been?" Hermione asked anxiously, jumping up.

"Walking." He mumbled. He was still wearing his Quidditch things.

"You look frozen! Come and sit by the fire!" She gestured for him to come sit with her and Fred by the fire.

Ron refused to look at Fred.

"I'm sorry." He muttered, looking at his feet.

"What for?" Fred asked.

"For thinking I can play Quidditch. I could have cost us the game if Harry hadn't caught the Snitch when he did. I'll resign first thing tomorrow."

"If you resign, there will only be three players left on the team." When Ron looked puzzled he said, "I've been given a lifetime ban. So've Harry and George."

"What?!" Ron yelled.

Hermione told him the full story. Fred refused to tell it. When she had finished, Ron looked more anguished than ever.

"This is all my fault – "

"You didn't make George and Harry punch Malfoy." Fred said angrily.

"- if I wasn't so terrible at Quidditch – "

" – it's got nothing to do with that."

" – it was that song that wound me up – "

" – it would have wound anybody up."

Hermione got up and walked to the window, away from the argument, watching the snow swirling down against the pane.

"Look, drop it will you!" Fred burst out. "It's bad enough, without you blaming yourself for everything!"

Ron said nothing but sat gazing miserably at the damp hem of his robes. After a while he said in a dull voice, "This is the worst I've ever felt in my life."

"Join the club." Fred muttered bitterly.

"Well," Hermione said, her voice trembling slightly. "I can think of one thing that might cheer you both up."

"Oh yeah?" Ron snapped, skeptically.

"Yeah." Hermione turned away from the pitch – black, snow – flecked window, a broad smile spreading across her face. "Hagrids back."

XxXxX

After Hermione, Ron and Harry got back from visiting Hagrid, and hearing his story of how he met the giants, they ran into Fred and George who were hiding in an alcove just to the side of the big oak front doors.

"Where've you been?"

"What've you been doin?" They asked, jumping out in front of the trio.

The three of them, took of the invisibility cloak, giving the twins confused looks.

"How did you-"

"Oh come on. If you lot had been any louder we would've suspected a herd of elephants." Fred grinned.

"We weren't that loud." Hermione hissed. "Where we?" She added quietly.

George grinned widely at her. She stuck her tongue out at him.

"Now now, children behave." Fred tutted.

"Come on 'Mione! We need to get back to the common room! Umbridge already seems to suspect someone was in Hagrids cabin and if she sees us she'll know it was us!" Harry said, tugging on Hermione's sleeve.

"Alright, alright I'm coming." Hermione sighed, pulling the cloak back over her head. She disappeared along with Ron and Harry. Fred and George waved cheerily at them as they walked away. She waved back until she remembered they couldn't see her.

XxXxX

"I'm worried about Hagrid." Hermione said one afternoon when she was lounging around in the common room with Fred.

"Why? Is it because he has a black eye the size of Australia, because I offered him some of this stuff that fixes it right up but we didn't have enough."

"No. Though his eye is slightly worrying."

"He's been putting dragon meat on it. I mean, where the hell did he learn that from?" Fred laughed.

"I know! But that's not why I'm worried. I asked him what his lesson plan was and he said he was planning to teach us about as many dangerous and _illegal_ animals as he can. I've been going down nearly every day to help plan his lessons but he doesn't seem to understand me when I tell him that Umbridge _will _get rid of him if his lesson doesn't meet her standards."

"Hagrid enjoys dangerous animals. But he might surprise you, you never know."

"I'm Hermione Granger. I know everything." Hermione grinned cheekily at Fred who chuckled and kissed her nose.

"Ah, but do you know how much I love you?"

"This much?" Hermione asked, spreading her arms wide, imitating the little rabbit in the book.

Fred cocked his head to one side in confusion. Obviously he had never read 'Guess How Much I Love You'.

"The book? Guess How Much I Love You? It was my favourite book when I was a little kid." Hermione explained. Fred still looked confused so Hermione explained further. "It's about a baby rabbit and his dad. His dad keeps asking, guess how much I love you and the little rabbit replies 'this much?' and spreads his arms out wide."

Fred shook his head, laughing to himself. Hermione stuck her tongue out at him. "Oh, attractive." Fred teased.

Ron walked into the common room at that moment, just at Fred leaned in for a kiss. He groaned and his ears flushed red. Ron walked straight past the pair looking at the floor, trying to ignore the couple. He made it to the stairs of the boy's dormitory, before shooting a quick look at the chatting couple. He sighed and ran up the stairs.

Just as he took his first step, Hermione looked up and notice him running up the stairs. She noticed his red ears and wondered what could have happened to make him embarrassed.

"Oh guys, do you have to be all over each other in the middle of the common room?" Harry asked, coming over the couches, where they were sitting.

Fred grinned at the boy and Hermione blushed. "Harry, when is the last DA meeting? I was thinking we could hold it tomorrow, and that will be the last one before the holidays." Hermione suggested.

Harry nodded. "Yeah, that's what I was thinking too. We'll tell everyone at breakfast tomorrow."

"Tell everyone what?" Ginny asked, sitting down opposite Harry.

"DA meeting tomorrow. Same time as last meeting." Harry replied.

"I can tell Michael tonight if you want." She offered.

"You're still going out with this Michael guy then?" Fred frowned. Ginny and Hermione both rolled their eyes at him.

"Yes. Is that a _problem_?" Ginny asked, her tone clearly indicating she didn't want to be lectured from her older brother.

"Well yes, yes – no, absolutely no problem at all." Fred switched to shaking his head when he saw the glare his sister was shooting at him. It also helped that she was reaching into the pocket where she kept her wand.

Hermione and Harry laughed at Fred's terrified expression.

"She's scary." Fred whined at Hermione. Hermione grinned at him and kissed him.

"Oh seriously guys? I'm happy for you and everything but it just makes me feel lonely." Harry complained.

"If you don't like being single then you should ask out Cho. You know she wants you to, you know _you_ want to, so just do it." Hermione said.

Harry fidgeted nervously. "What if she says no?"

"Harry, she won't say no. Do you not pay attention to her?" Fred asked.

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, she stares at you every second of the day, and more."

"No she doesn't." Harry scoffed. "Does she?" He added, seriously.

Fred rolled his eyes and nodded.

"I'm going to find Ron." He sighed, standing up.

"He's upstairs." Hermione said as he stood up. He nodded at her and ran up the stairs.

"I think I might go visit Michael." Ginny muttered standing up after Harry left.

"Why do I feel like the mother whose children don't want to talk to?" Hermione joked.

* * *

**Oh my stars! I wrote this _last Wednesday,_ but I am so iffy that I couldn't update on the wrong day! So I spent this week just writing, and writing, and writing, and writing and am now up to chapter 18, but I am afraid you will have to wait for those...**

**But seriously, I cannot explain to you how frustrating it was waiting for Tuesday to come!**

**Press that little review button and make a girl _very _happy!**

**Toodle Pip xx**


	15. The Emotional Range of a Teaspoon

**I thought as a special treat, I would put up two because I have been waiting what felt like ages to update, and I thought I would treat you to two chapters! I also want to know what you want me to do for chapter 20? Because I am nearly at 20 chapters which is a milestone for this story and would appreciate any suggestions you may have to make it special :)**

**Oh and a quick disclaimer because I am borrowing some things from the last DA lesson before the Christmas Holidays. I do not own anything except my writing skill. JK is much better than me and basically owns the world. I own about 50 cents…**

* * *

Fred and George walked into the Room of Requirement just after Angelina, Katie and Alicia. The three girls were talking to Harry about Quidditch.

"Well," Angelina said, dully, pulling off her cloak and throwing it in a corner." We've finally replaced you."

"Replace me?" Harry asked, face blank in confusion.

"You and Fred and George." She sighed impatiently. "We've got another Seeker!"

"Who?" Harry asked quickly.

"Ginny Weasley." Kate said.

Harry, Fred and George gaped at her. Fred knew his sister loved Quidditch but she had always been the referee for their games, never a player.

"Yeah, I know." Angelina said, taking in their shocked expressions. "She's pretty good actually. Nothing on you of course," She muttered darkly, throwing Harry a very dirty look, "but as we can't _have _you…"

"And what about us?" Fred asked.

"What about you?" Alicia replied, turning to face the twins.

"Who replaced us?" George asked impatiently.

"Andrew Kirke and Jack Sloper." Alicia answered, her voice lacking enthusiasm. "Neither of them are brilliant, but compared to the rest of the _idiots_ who showed up…"

The arrival of Ron, Hermione and Neville brought this depressing discussion to an end, and within five minuted the room was full enough to shield Harry and the twins from Angelina's angry looks.

"Okay," Harry called to the room. "I thought this evening we should just go over the things we've done so far, because it's the last meeting before the holidays and there's no point starting something new right before a three-week break – "

"We're not doing anything new?" Zacharias Smith interrupted, in a disgruntled whisper loud enough to carry through the room. "If I'd known that, I wouldn't have come."

"We're all really sorry Harry didn't tell you then." Fred said loudly, glaring at Smith.

" – We can practice in pairs." Harry continued. "We'll start with the Impediment Jinx, for ten minutes and then we can get out the cushions and try Stunning again."

They all divided up into pairs. The room was full with cries of 'Impedimenta' and people froze for a minute or so, during which their partner would stare aimlessly around the room watching other pairs at work, then would unfreeze and take their turn at the jinx.

Fred and George were spending their time when the other was frozen, either watching their girlfriends or pranking Zacharias Smith. After a couple of looks from Harry, they stopped, not before sending a quick little hex at Zacharias causing his hair to turn purple.

After ten minutes on the Impediment Jinx, they laid cushions all over the floor and started practicing Stunning again. Space was really too confined to allow them all to work on this spell at once; half the group observed the others for a while, then swapped over.

At the end of half an hour, Harry called a halt.

"You're getting really good." He called, beaming around at them. "When we get back from the holidays we can start doing some of the big stuff – maybe even Patronuses."

There was a murmur of excitement. The room began to clear in the usual twos and threes; most people wished Harry a "Happy Christmas" as they went.

Fred and George pulled their girlfriends out of the room and down the corridor in different directions. They both looked over their shoulders and winked at each other before walking down the corridor.

"So 'Mione, what are you doing for Christmas?" Fred asked, putting his arm around Hermione's waist.

"I'm going skiing with my parents." Hermione sighed. "I don't really like it but my parents want to spend time with me so…"

"Oh, so you're not going to come to Grimmauld Place with me?" Fred pouted.

"No, sorry. _But _I might be able to visit you for a bit towards the end." Hermione smiled up at him.

Fred smiled back happily and lent down to kiss Hermione on the forehead.

"I love you Hermione." He said quietly.

"I love you to Fred."

XxXxX

Hermione and Fred returned to the Common Room half an hour later, just before a shocked Harry. Hermione sat down and started to write a letter and Ron was lying on the ground, trying to finish his Transfiguration homework. Fred lounged on the couch next to Hermione, his arm on the back of the couch, near Hermione's head.

Harry walked in and sat down on the sofa next to Fred and Hermione's. His face was in a complete state of shock.

"Are you alright Harry?" Hermione asked, peering at him over the tip of her quill.

Harry gave a half - hearted shrug.

"What's up?" Ron asked, hoisting himself up on his elbow to get a clearer view of Harry. "What's happened?"

Harry didn't answer.

"Is it Cho?" Fred asked, grinning cheekily at Harry.

Harry nodded. Ron sniggered, stopping when Hermione glared at him.

"So – er – what did she want?" Ron asked in a mock casual voice.

"She – " Harry began, rather hoarsely. He cleared his throat and tried again. "She – er – "

"Did you kiss?" Hermione interrupted briskly.

Ron sat up so fast he sent his ink bottle flying all over the rug. Disregarding this completely, he stared avidly at Harry.

"Well?" He demanded.

Harry nodded.

"HA!" Fred made a triumphant gesture with his fist and both him and Ron went into raucous peals of laughter that made timid – looking second years over beside the window jump.

Hermione gave Ron a look of deep disgust and returned to her letter.

"Well?" Ron asked finally, looking up at Harry. "How was it?"

"Wet."

Fred made a noise that might have indicated jubilation or disgust, it was hard to tell.

"Because she was crying." Harry continued heavily.

"Oh." Ron said, his smile fading. "Are you that bad at kissing?"

"Dunno." Harry paused. "Maybe I am."

"Of course you're not." Hermione said absently, scribbling away at her letter.

Fred sat forward, spluttering and coughing. "Excuse me? How the hell would you know?!"

"Nothing like that Fred, don't worry." Hermione reassured him. Fred still looked suspicious, but sat back again. "I know, because Cho spends half her time crying these days. She does at mealtimes, in the loos, all over the place."

"You'd think a bit of kissing would cheer her up." Ron muttered.

"Ron," Hermione said in a dignified voice, dipping the point of her quill into her inkpot. "You are the most insensitive wart I have ever had the misfortune to meet."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ron sat up, glaring at Hermione. "What sort of person cries when someone's kissing them?"

"Yeah," Harry agreed, slightly desperately. "Who does?"

Hermione looked at the pair of them with an almost pitying expression on her face.

"Don't you understand how Cho's feeling at the moment?"

"No." Harry, Fred and Ron said together.

Hermione sighed and lay down her quill.

"Well, obviously, she's feeling very sad, because of Cedric dying. Then I expect she's feeling confused because she liked Cedric and now she likes Harry, and she can't work out who she likes best. Then she'll be feeling guilty, thinking it's an insult to Cedric's memory to be kissing Harry at all, and she'll be worrying about what everyone else might say about her if she starts going out with Harry. And she probably can't work out what her feelings towards Harry are, anyway, because he was the one who was with Cedric when Cedric died, so that's all very mixed up and painful. Oh, and she's afraid she's going to be thrown off the Ravenclaw Quidditch team because she's been flying so badly."

A slightly stunned silence greeted the end of this speech, then Ron uttered, "One person can't feel all that at once, they'd explode."

"Just because you've got the emotional range of a teaspoon doesn't mean we all have." Hermione snapped nastily, picking up her quill again.

"She's the one who started it." Harry said. "I wouldn't have – she just sort of came at me – and next thing she's crying all over me – I didn't know what to do – "

"Don't blame you mate." George said, coming over and sitting down next to Fred on the sofa.

"You just had to be nice to her." Hermione looked up anxiously. "You were, weren't you?"

"Well," Harry said slowly, a blush creeping up his neck. "I sort of – patted her on the back a bit."

Hermione looked as though she was restraining herself from rolling her eyes with extreme difficulty.

"Well, I suppose it could have been worse. Are you going to see her again?" Hermione sighed.

"Who are you writing to?" Harry asked quickly, trying to change the subject.

Hermione frowned at him, knowing exactly what he was doing. "Writing to Viktor."

"Krum?" Fred asked, frowning.

"How many other Viktors do we know?" Hermione rolled her eyes, turning around to face Fred.

Fred narrowed his eyes, and squinted over Hermione's shoulder, trying to see what she was writing.

"Fred, I get that you are a very jealous person – "

"What? No – I – I - " Fred spluttered.

"I get that, but Viktor is just a friend and I would greatly appreciate it if you respected my privacy and didn't try to read my letters." Hermione said, grumpily, standing up, rolling up her letter and walking off up the girls' staircase.

"What does she see in Krum?" Fred grumbled to George later that night, as they got ready for bed in their dormitory.

"Well, I s'pose he's older, isn't he…and he's an international Quidditch player…" George teased.

Fred glared at his brother. "I'm older. I play Quidditch." He muttered.

"Yeah, _Hogwarts Quidditch._ It's not exactly in World Cup League is it?"

"But apart from that? He's just a grouchy git, isn't he?"

"Bit grouchy, yeah." George agreed, getting into bed.

Fred sighed grumpily. "Night." He grunted.

"Night."

* * *

**Remember to review suggesting things! They make me happyyyy**

**Toodle Pip xx**


	16. St Mungo's

**OH MY STARS I AM SO SORRY! I PROMISED YOU CHAPTERS THAT AREN'T LATE AND I WAS LATE! My grandparents are coming over from England and I was so distracted and I just completely forgot about this story! I hope you enjoy this chapter! It's a little _too _JK but I tried to put my twist in it. **

**Disclaimer: I'm using some more things from the book. Not JK. Never will be JK. Wish I was JK.**

* * *

Fred was woken up at about 3 in the morning, by a frantic George shaking him awake.

"Fred! Fred wake up! We've gotta go!" George shouted.

"I don't wanna…" Fred groaned, rolling over, trying to go back to sleep.

"Fred! McGonagall just came up and woke me up! I think it's important!"

Fred shot up out of bed when he heard that McGonagall had woken them up. He quickly pulled on some slippers and ran out the door with George.

They met Ginny and McGonagall at the bottom of the stairs. The professor didn't say anything, just looked at them grimly and led them, in silence, to the headmasters office. They reached his office and walked in to find Harry and Ron talking to Dumbledore.

"Harry – what's going on?" Ginny asked, looking frightened. "Professor McGonagall says you saw Dad get hurt – "

"Your father has been injured in the course of his work for the Order of the Phoenix," said Dumbledore, before Harry could speak. "He has been taken to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. I am sending you back to Sirius's house, which is much more convenient for the hospital than The Burrow. You will meet your mother there."

"How're we going?" Fred asked, sharing a look with George who looked extremely shaken. Fred imagined he had the same look on his own face. "Floo powder?"

"No," Dumbledore shook his head. "Floo powder is not safe at the moment, the network is being watched. You will be taking a Portkey." He indicated the old kettle lying innocently on his desk. "We are just waiting for Phineas Nigellus to report back…I want to be sure the coast is clear before sending you – "

There was a flash of flame in the very middle of the office, leaving behind a single golden feather that floated gently to the floor.

"It is Fawkes's warning," said Dumbledore, catching the feather as it fell. "Professor Umbridge must know you're out of your beds… Minerva, go and head her off - tell her any story -"

Professor McGonagall was gone in a swish of tartan.

"He says he'll be delighted," said a bored voice behind Dumbledore; the wizard called Phineas had reappeared in front of his Slytherin banner. "My great-great-grandson has always had an odd taste in house-guests."

"Come here then." Dumbledore said to Harry and the Weasleys. "And quickly, before anyone else joins us."

Harry and the others gathered around Dumbledore's desk. There was a quick countdown, and suddenly Fred felt a powerful jerk behind his navel and the ground vanished from beneath his feet, his hand was glued to the kettle; he was banging into the others as they all sped towards in a swirl of colours and a rush of wind, the kettle pulling them onwards…until his feet hit the ground so hard his knees buckled, the kettle clattered to the ground, and somewhere close at hand a voice said,

"Back again, the blood traitor brats. Is it true their father's dying?"

"OUT!" roared a second voice.

Fred scrambled to his feet and looked around; they had arrived in the gloomy basement kitchen of number twelve Grimmauld Place.

"What's going on?" Sirius asked, stretching out a hand to help Ginny up. "Phineas Nigellus said Arthur's been badly injured – "

"Ask Harry." Fred said.

"Yeah, I want to hear this myself." George agreed.

The twins and Ginny stared at Harry. Fred heard Kreacher's footsteps stop on the stairs outside.

Harry retold the story to the twins, Ginny and Sirius.

"Is Mum here?" Fred asked, turning to Sirius.

"She probably doesn't know what's happened yet." Sirius said. "You lot were the most important people to get out of Hogwarts. We don't want Umbridge knowing you were leaving the school."

"We have to go to St Mungo's." Ginny exclaimed urgently. She looked around at her brothers and their attire. "Sirius, can you lend us cloaks or something?"

"You are not going to St Mungo's!" Sirius said loudly, shaking his head and crossing his arms.

"We can go to St Mungo's if we want!" Fred protested. "He's our dad!"

"And how are you going to explain you knew Arthur was attacked before the hospital even let his wife know?" Sirius raised an eyebrow.

"What does that matter?" George argued hotly.

"It matters because we don't want to draw attention to Harry having visions!" Sirius shouted. "Do you know what the Ministry would do with that information?!"

Fred still felt like he couldn't care less what the Ministry made of anything.

Ginny spoke up. "Somebody else could have told us."

"Like who? Listen, your dad's been hurt while on duty for the Order and the circumstances are fishy enough without his children knowing seconds after it happened, you could seriously damage the Order's – "

"We don't care about the dumb Order!" Fred shouted.

"It's our dad!" George yelled.

"Your dad knew what he was getting into and he won't thank you for messing things up for the Order!" Sirius shouted back.

"Easy for you to say, stuck here!" Fred bellowed. "I don't see you risking your neck!"

Harry decided to step in here.

"I know it's hard, but we've all got to act as though we don't know anything yet. We've got to stay put, at least until we hear from Mrs Weasley." Harry said quietly.

Fred and George still felt mutinous, and could see on each other's faces, that they looked it too. They glared at Sirius for another minute before sitting down either side of Ginny at the table.

"That's right. Thank you Harry. Right, let's all have a drink!" Sirius smiled encouragingly. He waved his wand and 6 butterbeers flew towards them, skidding along the table and stopping in front of them. They all drank and for a while the only sounds were those of the crackling kitchen fire and the soft thud of their bottles on the table.

Somewhere around quarter to four, the fire blazed and a roll of parchment came shooting out, hitting George in the head. He grabbed it and read it out loud.

"_Dad is still alive. I am setting out for St Mungo's now. Stay where you are. I will send news as soon as I can. Mum."_

George looked around the table.

"Still alive….but that makes it sound…." The sentence didn't need finishing. The whole room visibly paled.

At ten past five in the morning, once everyone had fallen into a light sleep, the kitchen door swung open and Mrs Weasley entered the kitchen. She was extremely pale, but when they all turned to look at her, she had a smile on her face.

"He's going to be alright." She sighed, tiredly but relieved.

Fred, who had risen from his chair when she had walked in, fell back into his chair, his hands over his face. George and Ginny hugged their mother, and Ron laughed, shakily.

"Breakfast!" Sirius decided loudly.

XxXxX

The day after, Tonk and Mad – Eye turned up to escort them across London, to St Mungo's. They greeted them gleefully, laughing at the bowler hat Mad – Eye was wearing at an angle to conceal his magical eye, and assuring him, truthfully that Tonks' short, bright pink hair would attract would attract a lot more attention on the London Underground.

They arrived in the hospital and straight away joined the line for the Enquiries desk.

Fred and George exchanged whispers as they watched the people walking back and forth with various illnesses and ailments.

"Hey look at those shoes. They are like, biting her feet! We could sell those!" Fred suggested, pointing at the woman at the front of the desk, who was hopping back and forth.

"Yeah, but we would have to make them better. Bigger, better, _fabulous!_" George grinned. Fred grinned back.

Mrs Weasley finally reached the desk.

"Hello, my husband, Arthur Weasley, was supposed to be moved to a different ward this morning, could you tell us - ?"

"Arthur Weasley?" The witch ran her finger down a long list in front of her. "Yes, first floor, second door on the right, Dai Llewellyn Ward."

"Thank you. Come on you lot." Mrs Weasley gestured for the group to follow her.

They followed her through double doors, and along narrow corridors.

"We'll wait outside, Molly." Tonks said, putting her arm out to stop Mad – Eye. He growled his approval and lent back against the corridor wall, his magical eye spinning in all directions.

The ward was small and stuffy. There was only one window, set a high on the wall, facing the door. Most of the light was coming from the shining crystal bubbles clustered in the middle of the ceiling.

There were only three patients. Mr Weasley was occupying the bed at the far and of the ward beside the tiny window. Fred was pleased to see his father propped up on several pillows and reading the Daily Prophet.

"Hello!" He called, throwing the Prophet aside. "Bill just left, Molly, had to get back to work, but he says he'll drop in on you later."

"How are you, Dad?" Ginny asked, hugging her father.

"If only they could take bandages off, I'd be fit to go home."

"Why can't they take them off, Dad?" Fred asked.

"Well, I start bleeding like mad every time they try." Mr Weasley said cheerfully.

"So are you going to tell us what happened, Dad?" Fred asked, pulling up a chair.

"Well, you already know, don't you?" Mr Weasley sent a kind smile at Harry. "It's simple – I'd had a long day at work, dozed off, got sneaked up on and bitten."

"Is it in the Prophet? You getting attacked?" George pointed to the newspaper that Mr Weasley had cast aside.

"Why would it be George? The Ministry don't want people to know a dirty great serpent got – "

"Arthur!" Mrs Weasley warned him.

" – got – er – me" Mr Weasley recovered hastily.

"So where were you when it happened?" Ginny questioned, curiously.

"That's my business." Mr Weasley said, with a small smile.

"But Dad – " Fred protested. Mr Weasley shook his head and started talking about an arrest they made concerning a regurgitating toilet.

"You were guarding weren't you?" George said quietly. "The weapon? The thing You – Know – Who is after?"

"George! Be quiet!" Mrs Weasley snapped.

Mr Weasley raised his voice slightly, but continued talking about the arrest. Fred and George continued trying to get a reaction out of their father.

Mrs Weasley gave up telling the to be quiet, and sent them outside with Mad – Eye and Tonks.

"That's enough." She said, crossly. "Mad – Eye and Tonks are outside, Arthur. They want to come and see you. You lot, wait outside. You can come and say goodbye after." She waved her arms at the children and pushed them towards the door.

They sighed and trooped back into the corridor. Mad – Eye and Tonks went in, closing the door behind them.

Fred raised his eyebrows.

"Fine." He muttered. "Be like that." He rummaged in his pockets. "Don't tell us anything."

"Looking for these?" George held out a tangle of flesh coloured string.

"You read my mind." Fred grinned. "Let's see if St Mungo's puts Imperturbable Charms on its ward doors, shall we?"

He and George disentangled the string, and separated five Extendable Ears from each other. Fred handed them around. When Harry hesitated to take one, they made some speech about Harry's rights to take one, being the saviour of their father's life.

Harry sighed and took one. They all inserted them in their ears.

"Okay, go!" Fred whispered.

The flesh coloured strings wriggled under the door. At first they couldn't hear anything and then they heard Tonks' voice.

"…they searched the whole area but couldn't find the snake anywhere. It just seems to have vanished after it attacked you, Arthur…but You – Know – Who can't have expected a snake to get in, can he?"

"I reckon he sent it as a look out." Moody growled. "He hasn't had much luck so far, has he? No, I reckon he's trying to get a clearer picture of what he's facing and if Arthur hadn't been there, the beast would've had more time to look around. So Potter says he saw it all happen?"

"Yes." It was Mrs Weasleys voice this time, and she sounded uneasy. "You know, Dumbledore seems almost to have been waiting for Harry to see something like this."

"Yeah, well." Moody said. "There's something funny about the Potter kid, we all know that."

"Dumbledore seemed worried about Harry when I spoke to him this morning." Mrs Weasley whispered.

"Course he's worried." Moody growled. "The boy's seeing things from inside You – Know – Who's snake. Obviously, Potter doesn't realize what this means, but if You – Know – Who's possessing him – " The group all pulled the Extendable Ears out of their ears.

Fred, George and Ginny all stared at Harry, in fear and surprise. When Harry had been telling them what happened, he had never mentioned that he had been in the _mind_ of the snake.


	17. Hermione Arrives

**Okay, I am starting to get more to a point when I can follow the storyline more closely! At the beginning I had to stray reasonably far so that I could Fred and Hermione together but now I am at a point when I can follow it almost perfectly! Yay!**

Hermione was worried. She had woken up and gone down to the common room, expecting to see Fred and George like every morning. When she hadn't seen them, she realized they must have just gone down to breakfast. It was a Saturday morning after all and maybe they had just decided to go to breakfast early.

So she walked, still slightly worried, down to the Great Hall. She took her usual seat at the table, scanning it for Fred or George. When she didn't see them, the worry in the pit of her stomach grew heavier.

Hermione at her breakfast slowly, but when she couldn't take it anymore, she pushed her plate away and got up. She walked slowly, looking in every hiding place she knew of for either of them. She made it to the common room, and stepped inside. This was when she realized that she hadn't seen Harry or Ron either.

"Where are they?!" She groaned, slumping down in one of the armchairs by the burnt out fire.

"Hey Hermione, have you seen Fred or George?" Lee asked, appearing behind her armchair. She jumped up in surprise and span around.

"What? Oh hi Lee. No, I haven't. Why? Haven't you?"

"No…The thing is, their trunks are gone and so are all their clothes. Their beds are made and there is absolutely no trace of a struggle so they can't have been kidnapped…" Lee said slowly.

"That's weird. Should we ask Angelina? She might know where George is?" Hermione suggested.

"Angelina!" Lee shouted across the common room. The girl looked up and when Lee beckoned for her, she ran over.

"What?" She asked.

"Have you seen George?" Hermione asked.

"No…I haven't seen him since last night." Angelina answered.

"Oh."

"Is that all you wanted? I'm kind of busy with my friends, sorry." Angelina asked quickly. When Hermione nodded, she smiled gratefully and ran back to her group of friends.

"This is weird." Hermione shook her head, confused.

"McGonagall?" Lee suggested.

"McGonagall." Hermione nodded. The two of them walked together out of the common room and to the third corridor, where the Professors office was located.

They knocked on the door, and heard a faint 'Enter!'. Lee pushed open the door, allowing Hermione to enter before he walked in, closing the door behind him.

"Mr Jordan, Miss Granger?" McGonagall asked, taking in the strange sight. Lee and Hermione weren't normally seen _alone_ together. "Can I help you?"

"We were wondering where Fred and George are - " Lee said.

" - and Harry and Ron. And come to think of it, Ginny too." Hermione interrupted.

Lee nodded in agreement. McGonagall sighed.

"Have a biscuit." She picked up her biscuit tin and pushed it under Lee and Hermione's noses.

"I'd rather – " Lee shook his head.

"Have a biscuit Mr Jordan." McGonagall repeated firmly. Lee looked scared, and took a biscuit. Hermione rolled her eyes and also took a biscuit.

"Please professor, I don't think this explains where they are." Hermione said politely.

"I'm getting to that Miss Granger. Now, last night, Mr Weasley was attacked." Hermione gasped loudly and Lee gaped at the professor. "Quite." McGonagall nodded. "The Weasleys and Mr Potter have been taken out of school to visit him, and be with him until he recovers."

"Why is Harry involved?" Lee asked, curiously.

"I'm afraid that is private. Miss Granger, as one of Mr Potters closest friends, and a _close_ friend Fred Weasley, the Headmaster would like to speak to you. Unfortunately, Mr Jordan, I cannot tell you anything more." Professor McGonagall said, grimly.

Lee tried to protest but McGonagall stopped him. "No, Mr Jordan. I am sorry, but I cannot."

Lee sighed, and stood up, leaving McGonagall's office. Hermione made to follow him but McGonagall asked her to stay.

"Miss Granger, please remain with me. I am to take you to the Headmasters office." McGonagall said. Hermione nodded and followed McGonagall to Dumbledore's office. They walked in silence, until they reached to enormous gargoyle guarding his office.

"Mint Humbugs." McGonagall said. "Christmas spirit." She sighed, at Hermione, who smiled.

They stepped onto the moving staircase that carried them up to the Headmasters door. McGonagall knocked.

"Enter!" Dumbledore called through the door.

They walked in, McGonagall shutting the door behind them.

"Ah, Miss Granger." Dumbledore smiled.

"Hello Professor." Hermione said, nervously.

Dumbledore nodded at her. "I take it Minerva has explained to you where your friends are?"

Hermione nodded and Dumbledore smiled. "Sir, I understand the Weasleys leaving, but why Harry?"

"Ah, that is what I wanted to talk to you about. Harry had a _vision_ this morning. In his _vision_ he saw involved him, seeing Mr Weasley attacked by a snake." Dumbledore explained.

Hermione gasped. "Where did this happen? Why?"

"Mr Weasley was on Order business at the time and I am afraid I cannot tell you what that was. But he is alive and well, and currently resting in St Mungo's, I assume, with his family."

"Will I be allowed to visit them?" Hermione asked, desperately.

"If you parents will allow you, you will be allowed to visit them. But, you must wait for the Christmas term to officially end before we let you leave. We cannot have Professor Umbridge any more suspicious then she already is."

Hermione wanted to protest, but she knew that there was no point. She nodded.

"Please don't worry Hermione." Dumbledore smiled, as she turned to leave. Her head snapped back to see Dumbledore's twinkling eyes, extremely surprised that the Headmaster had called her by her first name. She cast a fleeting look at McGonagall who seemed disapproving, her lips pursed in a thin line.

Hermione laughed quietly, walking out of the Headmasters office.

XxXxX

Hermione caught the Knight bus from London, once she had gotten out of the Kings Cross station. She had been told about the _shakiness_ of the bus by Harry, but was not prepared by how dangerous the bus was. She was flung against the window at least four times.

She had been told the address by Dumbledore, and rang the doorbell. Hermione heard shouting and screaming inside and the door was flung open by an extremely disgruntled Sirius.

"Hermione!" He shouted happily, hugging her. She laughed when he picked her up of the ground spinning her round.

"Put me down Sirius!" She laughed loudly. He sighed and put her down on her feet once again. "Where is everybody? And why is that painting screeching so loudly?" She asked, covering her ears when the noise registered in her brain.

"That would be my mother." Sirius said, darkly. "Shut up!" He roared at the painting.

"Who let that filthy mudblood in my house?!" The painting screeched. Sirius fought with the curtains for a moment, before he finally got them shut and the hall was silent.

"Sorry, 'Mione." Sirius apologised. "She's an evil woman."

"It's okay. So, where's Harry and everybody else?"

"Harry is hiding in the attic with Buckbeak, and everybody else is either in the kitchen or Harry and Ron's bedroom on the second floor." Sirius said.

Hermione thanked him and ran up the stairs all the way to the attic. She hammered on the door rapidly.

"I know you're in there! Will you please come out? I want to talk to you!"

Harry pulled open the door. "What are you doing here? I thought you were skiing with your parents?" He asked.

"Well, to tell you the truth, skiing's not really my thing." Hermione admitted. "So I've come here for Christmas. But don't tell Ron. I told him it's really good because he kept laughing so much. Mum and Dad are a bit disappointed, but I've told them everyone who is serious about exams is staying at Hogwarts to study. They want me to do well, they'll understand. Anyway, let's go to your bedroom, Ron's mum has lit a fire and she's set up sandwiches."

Harry sighed grumpily, and followed her back to the second floor.

Ron and Ginny were surprised to see Harry following Hermione.

"I came on the Knight Bus." Hermione said airily. "Dumbledore told me what had happened first thing this morning, but I had to wait for term to end officially before setting off. Umbridge is already livid that you lot disappeared right under her nose, even though Dumbledore told her Mr Weasley was in St Mungo's and he'd given you all permission to visit. So…"

She sat down next to Ginny and the two girls and Ron all looked up at Harry.

"How're you feeling?" Hermione asked.

"Fine." Harry said stiffly.

"Oh, don't lie to me Harry. Sirius said you've been hiding from everyone since you got back from St Mungo's."

"He did, did he?" Harry glared at the floor, possibly hoping Sirius was underneath and he could glare at him that way.

"And you won't look at any of us!" Ginny said loudly.

"It's you lot who won't look at me!" Harry argued angrily.

"Maybe you're taking it in turns to look but keep missing each other." Hermione suggested, the corners of her mouth twitching.

"Very funny." Harry snapped.

"Oh stop feeling all misunderstood, you're just being an angsty teenager." Hermione said sharply. "Look, the others have told me what you overheard last night on the Extendable Ears – "

"Yeah?" Harry growled. "Had a good gossip?"

"We wanted to talk to you Harry," Ginny said. "But as you've been hiding ever since we got back – "

"I didn't want anyone to talk to me." Harry snapped.

"Well that was stupid, seeing as I'm the only one who has ever been possessed by You – Know –Who and I can tell you how it feels." Ginny said angrily.

"I forgot." He muttered quietly.

"Lucky you."

"I'm sorry…so…do you think….do you think I'm being possessed then?" Harry apologised.

"Well, can you remember everything you've been doing? Are there big blank periods where you don't know what you've done?"

"No."

"Then he hasn't possessed you. When he did it to me, I couldn't remember what I'd been doing for hours at a time."

"The dream I had though – "

"Harry, you've had these dreams before." Hermione said. "You had flashes of what Voldemort was up to last year."

"This was different. I was the snake. Maybe Voldemort transported me across London – "

"One day," Hermione sighed. "One day, you will read _Hogwarts: A History_ and you will understand that there is no way Voldemort could have apparated you in or out of the castle grounds."

"You didn't leave your bed mate. I saw you thrashing around in your sleep for at least a minute before we could wake you up." Ron said.

Harry started pacing up and down the room.

Hermione jumped when she heard two loud cracks and Fred and George materialised in the room.

"Stop doing that!" Ginny shouted, clutching at her heart.

Hermione span round to face her boyfriend.

"'Ello love." He grinned at her.

She ran and hugged him happily. "Fred!" She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him.

George pouted at her when they pulled away from each other. "Don't I get a hug?"

Hermione laughed and hugged George too.

"A kiss?" George asked hopefully.

Hermione kissed his cheek, laughing.

"Not what I meant, but oh well." George laughed.

"Not trying to make a move on my girl, I hope." Fred wrapped his arm around Hermione's waist. "You do have a girlfriend."

"Ah, that one, goes by the name Angelina I believe? Quite pretty, not as pretty as you though 'Mione, you are quiet beautiful." George winked at her. She giggled.

"Angelina is quite beautiful and perfect for you George, and wouldn't be too happy to hear you flirt with another girl." Hermione said.

"True." George sighed.

XxXxX

Fred woke on Christmas day to find a large pile of presents at the foot of his bed. He jumped up in excitement and threw a fake wand at George.

George woke with a yelp. He threw the wand back and it hit Fred in the foot.

"Georgie! It's Christmas!" Fred shouted! He dove into his pile of presents and starting unwrapping them frantically, admiring each present for about two seconds before moving on. He found his Weasley jumper and handed it to George.

George found his and gave his to Fred. "Time to swap for a day!"

Fred laughed and pulled on George's jumper. They unwrapped the rest of their presents together before making their way downstairs to the kitchen. They tried to comfort her a bit before giving up and disapparating to Harry and Ron's bedroom though when they walked in on Mrs Weasley crying.

"Merry Christmas," George said. "Don't go downstairs for a bit." He warned.

"Why not?" Ron asked.

"Mum's crying again." Fred sighed, heavily. "Percy sent back his Christmas jumper."

"Without a note." George added. "Hasn't asked how Dad is or visited him or anything."

"We tried to comfort her." Fred said, eyeing the weird painting Harry was holding. "Told her Percy's nothing more than a humungous pile of rat droppings."

"Didn't work." George took on of Harry's Chocolate Frogs. "So Lupin took over. Best let him cheer her up before we go down for breakfast, I reckon."

"Who's that supposed to be?" Fred asked, squinting at the painting. "Looks like a gibbon with two black eyes."

"It's Harry!" George laughed, pointing at the back of the picture. "It says so on the back!"

"Good likeness." Fred grinned. Harry threw a homework diary at him; it hit the wall opposite and fell to the floor where it said happily: _If you've dotted the 'i's and crosses the 't's then you may do whatever you please!"_

They left the room so that Harry and Ron could get dressed. They could hear the various inhabitants of the house calling "Merry Christmas" to one another. On their way downstairs they met Hermione.

"Thanks for the necklace Fred!" She exclaimed happily, running up to Fred, into his open arms. "It's beautiful!"

For Christmas, Fred had bought Hermione a ruby necklace set in a gold heart, with a gold chain. He had used some of the money for the shop, which George hadn't been too happy about but Fred had managed to convince him that they would get the money back in the long run.

"Do you like it?" Fred asked, slightly nervously.

"It's perfect! I love it!" Hermione kissed him lightly. She pulled away and handed it to Fred. "Can you put it on me?"

He grinned at her, and pulled her hair out of the way, clicking the chain into place. "I charmed it so that it wouldn't tangle with your hair." He said, before placing a quick kiss on her neck. "Ginny said that's why you don't wear necklaces."

"Thank you Fred!" She stroked the necklace fondly and grinned at her boyfriend.

She then turned to George. "Merry Christmas George! Thank you for my present."

Fred turned to George is surprise. "You never told me you got her a present."

George blushed. "Yeah well, friends get friends presents don't they? She got me one."

Fred turned to Hermione. "You never told me you got him a present."

"Yeah, well, friends get friends presents don't they?" Hermione repeated, blushing as well.

"You mean, _you _got my girlfriend a present, and _you _got my twin a present?" Fred said, recapping their conversation.

"Oh, Fred don't get jealous. I _have_ a girlfriend remember?" George groaned at his twin, who was looking slightly annoyed.

"Yeah, the one you _forgot_ about the other day."

George rolled his eyes, along with Hermione. "Anyway, thank you George for your present."

"That's okay Hermione, did you like it?"

"It was great thanks, it will really help for my studying."

"You got her a present to help her study? Are you trying to take her away from me? She already spends her entire life studying!" Fred exclaimed. "What was it?"

"That quill we were working on. The one that listens to the teacher and writes the notes down." George explained.

"That sounds like Skeeters quill. It won't twist things will it?" Hermione asked suspiciously.

"No, no it will keep everything the same." Fred reassured her. "But wait, if you got George a present, did you get me one?" He asked, hopefully.

"You will have to wait and see." Hermione winked. Fred pouted at Hermione. She smiled and shook her head, refusing to allow his cute face to work on her.

XxXxX

Christmas lunch was quiet but happy. Small conversation was made between people across the table from one another. Presents were handed to certain people who hadn't received them yet, and George's flying Santa ornament from Hermione was flying around people's heads, succeeding at getting in the way as George had intended when he let it off.

Fred kept trying to slide his hand up Hermione's leg but each time she would coolly, elbow him in the stomach without blinking. After about the fifth time, he gave up, instead choosing just to rest his hand on her knee.

Once they had eaten their Christmas lunch, the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione were planning on paying Mr Weasley another visit, escorted by Mad – Eye and Lupin. They had managed to borrow a car for the occasion, as the Underground did not run on Christmas Day.

Hermione sat squashed between Fred and George, but it was warm, considering it was so cold outside.

The journey to St Mungo's was very quick, as there was very little traffic on the roads. There was a small trickle of witches and wizards heading up the street, obviously there to visit the hospital. The group strolled casually towards the dummy stood and one by one, stepped through the glass.

The reception was looking pleasantly festive; the crystal orbs that illuminated the hospital had been coloured red and gold, turning the clean white corridors a warm orange colour.

At the reception desk, was a family all with various injuries. One woman had a walnut jammed up her left nostril.

"Family argument?" The blonde witch behind the desk sighed. The whole family nodded and the witch pointed to the sign. "Spell damage, fourth floor."

They found Mr Weasley propped up in bed with the remains of his turkey dinner on a tray on his lap and a rather sheepish expression on his face.

"Everything all right Arthur?" Mrs Weasley asked, after they had all greeted Mr Weasley and handed over their presents.

"Fine, fine." Mr Weasley replied, a little too quickly. "You – er – haven't seen Healer Smethwyck, have you?"

"No…why?" Mrs Weasley eyed her husband suspiciously.

"Nothing, nothing." Mr Weasley said airily, starting to unwrap his pile of gifts. "Everyone had a good day? What did you all get for Christmas? Oh, Harry – this is wonderful!" He had just unwrapped Harry's gift of fuse – wire and screwdrivers.

"Arthur," Mrs Weasley said, still not satisfied with Mr Weasleys answers. "You've had your bandages changed. Why have you had your bandages changed a day early? They told me they wouldn't need doing until tomorrow."

"What?" Mr Weasley looked frighten and pulled the bed covers higher up his chest. "No, no – it's nothing – it's – I –"

He seemed to deflate under Mrs Weasleys piercing gaze.

"Well – now don't get upset, Molly, but Augustus Pye had an idea… he's the trainee healer, you know, lovely young chap and very interested in… um… complementary medicine… I mean, some of these old Muggle remedies… well they're called stitched, Molly, and they work very well on – on Muggle wounds."

Mrs Weasley made a strange noise that sounded like a shriek and a snarl. Bill muttered something about getting himself a cup of tea and Fred pulled George out with him.

"It's probably best we get out of there, especially before either of you two make a stupid comment." Bill said quietly as they walked out.

Fred and George gasped in mock shock. "I am insulted – "

" - Frankly, I'm completely distraught –

" – that you would even think something as horrible – "

" – most evil – "

" – simply disgusting thought as that."

"Yeah, well, it's the truth." Bill grinned at the twins.

"Where is the tearoom anyway?" George asked, trying to find a sign on one of the walls.

"I think it's the fifth floor." Fred said, also looking for a sign.

"One floor up." Bill pointed at the sign hanging above their heads.

"We have something that could fix that spattergroit right up boys." One of the paintings called out.

"Hey!" George turned to face the painting. glaring at it.

"I'm 25!" Bill said, clearly affronted at being called a boy.

"They're freckles!" Fred frowned at the painting. "But hey, we could use spattergroit for our joke shop. A skiving snackbox maybe?"

Bill rolled his eyes at the twins, who could take anything and turn it into a prank for their joke shop.

"Spattergroit takes a while to come into effect. It's hardly skiving snackbox worthy." Bill pointed out.

"Yeah, but if there was some way of perhaps, speeding up the process so it goes through the developing stages quicker. Ideally it would take five minutes to come into effect."

"There isn't a known medicinal cure, young man." One of the paintings said. "The only known cure is to take the liver of a toad, bind it tight about your throat, stand naked at full moon in a barrel of eels' eyes – "

"Alright! Nobody asked you!" George shouted at the painting. It fell quiet, glaring at George.

"I suppose we won't do it then." Fred sighed.

They reached the tearoom and the twins found a table, while Bill went to get some tea.

"It's typical Dad isn't it? Always try the muggle way." George muttered, smiling.

"Muggles are pretty smart in some respects. But sewing yourself back together? That's just stupid, let alone painful." Fred grimaced at the thought.

"I assume they would be sedated." Bill said, arriving at the table with a tray. Fred rolled his eyes at Bill and took his tea cup from the tray.


	18. Mrs Weasleys Discovery

**Aren't you just loving my chapters being on time? I knew you would :)**

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Fred still hadn't received his present from Hermione. It was getting late, and he was starting to think she hadn't gotten one. Not that he was going to throw a tantrum if she hadn't bought a present, it just would make him a bit upset, considering she got George one.

He sat on the sofa and Hermione sat on his lap. He kissed the back of her neck, and heard Mrs Weasley gasp. That was when Hermione realised Mrs Weasley had never been told about her and Fred. They had been together for two months, and spent a week in the same house as Mrs Weasley and not once had she noticed or been told about their relationship.

She turned to face Fred who was smiling sheepishly.

"I thought you told your mum! I told you to write your mum about us!" Hermione hissed, blushing under the stares.

"I meant to 'Mione, I really did. But I guess I might have possibly – only possibly – might have forgotten…" Fred tried to win her over with a smile but it didn't work.

"But – you and Fred – and what about – and Ron and but I – " Mrs Weasley stammered, completely confused.

"Are you okay Mum?" George asked, looking nervous along with Fred and Hermione.

"I – I think so…I suppose I'm just shocked." She looked from Fred to Hermione. "I always knew you would end up with one of my sons but I suppose I always thought it would be Ron."

Ron and Hermione looked at each other, sizing each other up before shaking their heads and wrinkling their noses. The room laughed and the atmosphere changed from awkward to normal again.

Fred and Hermione grinned at each other and Hermione kissed Fred on the cheek. "I think you are ready for your present now." She grinned at him. He smiled, excitedly and she stood up pulling him with her.

"We're just going upstairs, Mum." Fred said, heading out the door.

When Mrs Weasley looked at them suspiciously, George stood up. "I'll go with them Mum. Stop them from doing any funny business." He winked at Fred who grinned.

Hermione led him all the way up to her and Ginny's shared bedroom where she dove under her bed.

Fred and George both stared at her, completely confused.

She re-emerged with a squishy looking present, wrapped in red and gold Christmas paper.

"Merry Christmas." She said, handing him the present. Fred took it, unwrapping it quickly. He brought out a navy - blue shirt emblazoned with two golden bulrushes, crossing over. He turned it over to the front, and saw seven of signatures. One for every person on the team. "George said they were your favourite team…"

"How did you get this?" Fred asked, quietly, staring at the signed Puddlemere United shirt.

"I asked Oliver. He got the team to sign it. See, his signature is somewhere at the bottom." Hermione pointed at his signature and Fred smiled.

"Do you like it?" Hermione asked nervously. George rolled his eyes at Hermione.

"Do you need to ask me that? Merlin Hermione, I love it!" Fred shouted. Hermione sighed in relief as Fred strode towards her and scooped her up into a big hug. He kissed her passionately before pulling away and pulling the Puddlemere shirt on. He grinned at Hermione and she smiled fondly at him.

"Come on you two. Beddy byes." George said, clapping his hands together like a mother speaking to her children.

"But I don't wanna." Fred whined, catching George's mothering tone.

"But you have to."

"But I wanna stay and play with 'Mione."

"Tough. Bed. Now." George grabbed Fred and led him out the room. "Night 'Mione." He called after him.

"Night George. Goodnight Fred."

"Goodnight love." Fred called from down the corridor, where George was pushing him. "Merry Christmas!" She heard him shout.

She laughed and started getting ready for bed.

XxXxX

"You ready to go?" Mrs Weasley called up the stairs to Hermione, Ron and Ginny.

"Coming!" The three of them called, running down the stairs to the hall way.

Mrs Weasley had got a letter from St Mungo's telling them that Mr Weasley was being discharged and Mrs Weasley had felt they should pick him up while Harry was talking to Snape.

They met the twins and Mrs Weasley in the hall, and Mad – Eye outside. Mad – Eye accompanied them on the train and to St Mungo's.

Mrs Weasley left them with Mad – Eye outside in the corridor while she went in and got Mr Weasley ready. He emerged from the hospital room wearing striped pyjamas and a raincoat, smiling joyfully at the group.

"Hello!" He exclaimed.

"Hi Dad!" Ginny ran and gave him a huge hug, and the rest of the Weasleys plus Hermione waved and said their greetings.

"Let's go and enjoy our last day as a family before you all leave for school, shall we?" Mrs Weasley said happily.

They all walked as a family out of the hospital and Mad – Eye accompanied them on the Underground once again. Mr Weasley walked into the kitchen first, assuming that would be where Harry and Sirius were.

"Cured! Completely cured!" He announced brightly to the kitchen at large.

He and all the other Weasleys froze on the threshold, gazing at the scene in front of them, which was also suspended in mid-action, both Sirius and Snape looking towards the door with their wands pointing into each other's faces and Harry immobile between them, a hand stretched out to each, trying to force them apart.

"Merlins beard." Mr Weasley said, his smile sliding off his face. "What's going on here?"

Both Sirius and Snape lowered their wands. Snape pocketed his wand, turned on his heel and swept back across the kitchen, passing the Weasleys without comment. At the door he looked back.

"Six o' clock, Monday evening, Potter."

And then we was gone. Sirius glared after him, his wand at his side.

"What's been going one?" Mr Weasley asked again.

"Nothing, Arthur." Sirius sighed, breathing heavily as though he had just run a long distance. "Just a friendly chat between two old school friends." With what looked like an enormous effort, he smiled. "So…you're cured? That's great news, really great."

XxXxX

That night's meal should have been a cheerful one, with Mr Weasley back amongst them. Fred could tell Sirius was trying to make it so, yet when he was not forcing himself to laugh loudly at all Fred and Georges jokes, his face would fall back into a moody, brooding expression.

He tried to listen in on Hermione's conversation with Ron and Harry but Ginny elbowed him hard, giving him the evil eyes. He grunted and frowned at her.

"A women prefers it if her privacy is respected." She hissed.

"A man prefers it if his little sister didn't elbow him in the stomach." Fred hissed back.

"Ah, but for that preference to be met, you would have to be a man."

"I'm seventeen! That makes me a man!"

"Sure, sure." Ginny grinned cheekily, elbowing him again in the stomach.

"I'm a man though, right Gin?" George winked at her.

"Well, considering we're twins, I'd say that it's a possibility that if you're a man, I'm a man too." Fred said.

"Ah, but I am the older twin." George argued.

"I'm the older twin."

"I'm the older twin."

"I'm pretty sure I'm the older twin."

"I think you'll find, that I, George Weasley, am the older twin."

"I think you'll find – "

"Fred is the older twin, now SHUT UP!" Ginny interrupted, loudly. The whole room fell silent and looked at the three of them who all waved around the room, cheerily. The room laughed and went back to their own separate conversations.

"I'm the older twin." George muttered.

"Hush Georgie. I'm trying to listen." Fred whispered, leaning forward to hear Hermione's conversation.

Ginny elbowed Fred and stomped on his foot.

"Ow! Bloody hell Gin, how pointy are those shoes?!" Fred groaned, bringing his foot up and clutching at it in pain.

"I think my feet are quite daily."

"You are evil."

"I had an evil teacher." She winked at Fred who smiled weakly, still holding his throbbing foot.

XxXxX

They were returning to Hogwarts via the Knightbus, escorted once again by Tonks and Lupin, both of whom were eating breakfast in the kitchen when Harry, Ron and Hermione came down next morning.

"Ello love." Fred greeted her, kissing her on the cheek as she sat down next to him. She smiled at him and scooped some eggs onto her plate.

After a hurried breakfast, they all pulled on their jackets and scarves, as it was a chilly, grey January morning. Fred had a feeling it wouldn't be long before he was back in Grimmauld Place, a lot shorter than six months.

When he voice this opinion to George, he nodded grimly and patted Fred on the back.

* * *

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	19. Food Fight

**So next chapter is chapter 20 and you will just to have to wait and see if I use one of your ideas :) *nudge nudge wink wink***

**And this chapter is really short because I am an absolute idiot and thought I had written it when I hadn't and then I went to post it and then it's not there but I don't have time to write a full blown chapter and gahh I'm sorry!**

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"Come on 'Mione! We'll be late for the feast!" Fred whined, tugging on Hermione's sleeve. It was their first feast back from the Christmas holidays and they always had good food after Christmas.

"Just a second!" She laughed, putting a full stop at the end of her sentence that she had been writing and rolling the parchment up. She handed it to the owl waiting, and he flew off with it. "Let's go."

Fred grinned and pulled her out of the owlery. They ran together down the halls and into the Great Hall. People looked up as Hermione laughed loudly at some joke that Fred had just whispered in her ear and blushed. They took a seat next to George and Angelina, opposite Harry and Ron.

Ron frowned when he saw Fred with his arm around Hermione's shoulder, but looked away quickly. Hermione raised an eyebrow at him, but ignored it.

"Merry Christmas everybody!" Dumbledore called, speaking to all the people who hadn't been there over the holidays.

"Merry Christmas!" Fred shouted. Dumbledore's eyes twinkled and he smiled down at the grinning ginger.

"Merry Christmas Mr Weasley." He said, speaking directly to Fred.

Hermione stared disapprovingly at all the food on the table. George sighed.

"You're not still thinking about SPEW are you Hermione?" He asked, exasperatedly.

"But they at least deserve to be paid…"

"'Mione, the house elves like their job. They don't mind making all this food." He shook his head at Hermione, who still looked annoyed, even though she was scooping roast potatoes onto her plate by the dozen. George gave her a pointed look, and she shrugged.

"I like roast potatoes, okay?"

"I wasn't questioning it."

"I saw that look…" Hermione narrowed her eyes.

"Fred, control your girlfriend, and I'll control my boyfriend, yes?" Angelina suggested, tiredly. She was clearly not in the mood for an argument between George and Hermione, just yet.

Fred smiled, and nudged Hermione. "Don't argue with George. He's a bit…" He made a circular motion with his finger by his ear, to indicate George was funny in the head.

"Oi!" George glared at his brother, throwing a pea over Hermione's head, at Fred. It hit Fred in the ear and he turned his head slowly to face his brother.

He picked up a spoon, scooped up a pile of peas and flung it at his twin.

"You know what this means don't you Gred?" Fred grinned.

"I think I do Forge." George grinned back.

"FOOD FIGHT!" The twins bellowed together.

Immediately, the entire hall went into chaos. Food started flying everywhere. Peas hit people in the eye, sending them to the floor, and potatoes splatted on people's heads. Roast lamb slapped people across the cheek, and chicken legs punched people in the jaw.

The teachers didn't seem to know what to do. Dumbledore and Hagrid were both chuckling to themselves, McGonagall and Umbridge were both looking stony faced, unable to get anyone to be quiet, and Flitwick and Sprout were looking extremely confused. Snape was disapproving, but not doing anything to stop the goings on, which was strange.

Hermione sighed, when a pile of mash potatoes landed in her hair. That could take a while to get out.

Fred kept duplicating his food, sending piles and piles of peas in every direction.

After an entire boat of gravy landed on Hermione's head, she had had enough. She stood up, sighing in annoyance.

"ENOUGH!" She shrieked, using her wand to get rid of the gravy and mash potatoes. No one turned around. She fired a spell into the air that caused a loud bang.

This got everyone's attention.

"Fred and George Weasley!" She shouted. Angelina stood as well, feeling now as the time to assert her authority as George's girlfriend.

"Unacceptable." Angelina glared at the twins.

"You can't just throw food everywhere." Hermione frowned, crossing her arms.

"Ahem hem." Umbridge coughed from behind them. Angelina and Hermione jumped in surprise, spinning around. "I'll take it from here, Miss Johnson, Miss Granger." She turned to the twins, giving them a creepy smile. "Detention Mr Weasleys. 8 o'clock, my office."

Hermione started to protest but under the threat of a detention for her as well, she backed down. She continued to glare at the woman angrily.

Once Umbridge had taken her seat at the Heads Table, Hermione turned to the twins.

"Look what you've done! Now you've got detention!" She hissed.

"We're sorry Hermione." They both looked down at their feet, ashamed.

"I'll just have to be waiting with some murlap won't I?" She sighed.

"Thank you Hermione."

Fred smiled apologetically at her and kissed her head lightly.

* * *

**Okay guys! I'm sorry it's so short but I honestly thought I had written this and then I go to upload it and it says 28 words and I'm like, what? That's not right. So I open it and I've only written an author's note! It was already 6pm and I didn't have time to write a complete 2000 word chapter like I usually do because I've got writers block and it's impossible to write chapters at the moment! So I'm sorry that it's so short but please don't hate me!**

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	20. The Ridiculous Conversation About Ducks

**Chapter 20! Now, I am disappointed in you because only one person reviewed with a suggestion…tut tut. But the suggestion was really good, and my teeny brain hadn't even considered it so I am using it! **

**So, you can all thank Minty Siren7 for such an amazing chapter idea!**

**Blarg I'm sick at the moment which is why this chapter is being put up so early when normally I post at like 5pm, today I am posting at 10am. Yay early morning chapters! **

**This chapter will jump forward in time quite quickly a bit to just after the Easter Holidays, just a few days before Fred and George leave *tear*.**

**Side note: 125 followers! Eeee! Thank you everybody!**

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Hermione rolled her eyes at Fred and George as she left them to run to class. They had made her late enough by distracting her with some ridiculous conversation about ducks, and then finally let her go with two minutes to get to a class on the other side of the castle.

As she was running away from them, she dropped her wand. Well, it fell out of her back pocket. Fred noticed this and picked it up, calling her name.

"Hermione!" He called, down the corridor as she ran away.

She either didn't hear or ignored him because she didn't turn around, just kept running.

"Oh, I'll have to follow her." He muttered to George who nodded before heading to Transfiguration. "Cover for me?"

"You got it."

XxXxX

Hermione ran all the way across the castle to get to her Arithmancy class. She turned a corner, almost reaching the classroom. She ran past a tapestry and an arm appeared, grabbing her shoulder and pulling her into the alcove behind it. It was pitch black and Hermione couldn't see a thing.

"What the…?!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Hi Hermione." A thick Irish accent said.

Hermione racked her brain all the people she knew with an Irish accent. The only person she knew with that kind of accent was Seamus Finnigan.

"What? Seamus? What are you doing?"

"You're going out with that Fred Weasley bloke, no?"

"Yeah, why?" Hermione asked, suspiciously.

"Why?"

"I asked first."

"Just asking. Why are _you_ going out with _him_?"

"Because I love him. Got a problem with that?" Hermione made a face at him in the dark, which she then realised he couldn't see.

"Yeah, kind of. Because you see, I don't think he's good enough for you. He's just a stupid joker who can't take anything seriously. You need someone who will take you seriously and a relationship with you seriously."

"What? Like with you, you mean?" Hermione scoffed.

"Yeah, with me." Seamus said, hurt sounding in his voice.

"Look Seamus, I like you, but not in that way. I love Fred and we work well together. I just don't think that you and I would work out." She said kindly. "Now can we please get out of the dark and get to class? I'm late enough already."

"Of course, sure." Seamus muttered, pulling open the tapestry and letting Hermione step out before following her.

Hermione looked around the corridor and saw Fred at the end of it, poking his head around the corner, not looking in her direction. She made to call out his name, but Seamus put his hand under her jaw, twisting her face to look at him.

"I really like you Hermione. A lot more than he does anyway." He said huskily. Before Hermione could reply, he pressed his lips down on hers and pushed her against the wall. She struggled, putting her hands on his shoulders, preparing to knee him where it hurts.

At that moment, Fred span around after hearing a thump as Hermione hit the wall. He spotted a couple kissing and gagged, not before noticing he girls bushy – hair.

Hermione.

Fred didn't even stop to think. As soon as he saw Hermione kissing that guy, he just ran. He ran around the corner before remembering it was a dead end. This would mean he would either have to stay where he was, or run past Hermione and the mystery guy. Deciding he couldn't just hide, he ran out of the corridor and onto the one Hermione was on.

Hermione kneed Seamus in the groin, just as a figure ran past and there was a flash of red, before someone retreated around the corner. Seamus fell to the floor, groaning and she ran forward, her neck craning around the corner.

She saw a tall red – haired figure running down the corridor, away from her.

Fred.

"Fred!" She screamed. Fred ignored her and continued running. "Fred! Stop!" She started to chase after him, but he had disappeared.

She ran to where he had just been, and saw a wand on the ground. She immediately recognised it as hers and screamed in frustration, falling to her knees next to her wand.

Slowly, Hermione began to piece together what must have happened. When she was heading to class, she must have dropped her wand, and Fred must have come to return it. When she was pulled behind the tapestry, he must have run past her and been looking for her around the corner when Seamus had kissed her.

It was moments like these when Hermione felt like murdering someone. She jumped up, grabbing her wand as she did so. She ran back round the corner, where Seamus was still lying on the floor, clutching at his crotch.

"You utter and complete jerk. You idiot. You bloody arrogant idiotic delusional crazy _dead_ toerag." She hissed, stalking towards the cowering boy.

"Look, 'Mione – "

"Don't you dare. Don't you dare call me that. Don't you dare even _talk_ to me. Do you realise what you have just done? Fred saw that. _Fred._" Hermione reached Seamus and pointed her wand at his head.

Seamus clamped his mouth shut, gulping as he looked at the wand in front of his face. A few sparks flew from the wand, almost singing his eyebrows.

Suddenly, a classroom door to his right swung open and Professor Flitwick stepped out.

"Miss Granger!" He squeaked. "What in Merlins name are you doing?!"

Hermione span around, turning to face the Professor.

"Nothing. I was just…just showing Seamus a good tongue tying jinx. He had asked about it and I thought I would show him."

"Yes, well. Do it in your own common room, not in the corridors." Flitwick said, taking in the suspicious scene in front of him. He turned and walked back into his classroom, leaving Hermione and Seamus alone.

"You are lucky, Finnigan." Hermione muttered, turning and stalking away.

XxXxX

Fred ran all the way to the boy's dormitory. He sat down on the floor in front of the door, pulling his knees up and resting his head on them. He ran his hands through his hair, and looked up at the ceiling. Finally, he felt he was strong enough to stand up, and he moved to his bed.

"What the bloody hell was she doing?!" He shouted, throwing his pillow at the wall. It knocked over a moving photo with him and Hermione, and he found destruction strangely satisfying.

He stood up and grabbed a vase on his bedside table, and threw it at the opposite wall. After about ten minutes, he had destroyed every glass thing in the room, and everything that could break, had been broken. Including the window, which was now letting in a draught.

He sat on the floor, surrounded by broken objects for about half an hour. Finally, George came in after Transfiguration and stopped short when he took in the destroyed room.

"What the hell happened here?" He asked, slowly stepping into the room, around the broken objects.

"I'm angry."

"Well I can see that. Why are you angry? And why did you decide to destroy our dormitory?"

"Hermione."

"Hermione told you to destroy our dormitory…?" George asked, not quite understanding.

"No, Hermione made me angry."

"Aw, your first couples fight." George grinned at his brother.

"Not 'aw'." Fred snapped. George's grin slipped, and he came and sat on the floor next to his twin on the floor.

"What happened?"

"I saw her."

"Saw her?" George repeated slowly.

"Saw her with Finnigan."

"And?"

"And, it wasn't just a friendly chat." Fred muttered grumpily.

"So they were arguing?"

"More like 'entwined'."

"Entwined?"

"As in, Seamus' lips were on hers, and she wasn't exactly resisting."

"Oh." George frowned. He knew Hermione, almost as well as Fred did, and he knew that Hermione would never cheat on Fred. Never in a million years. "She wouldn't do that."

"I know what I saw!" Fred shouted, glaring at his brother.

"I know you know what you saw! All I'm saying is, Hermione wouldn't cheat. She loves you. She isn't the sort of person who cheats on someone she loves."

"Well obviously she did because I saw it! Look, I don't want to talk about it anymore okay?"

"I think you need to talk to her. Find out what happened. It might just be a huge mistake."

"I don't want to talk about it!" Fred yelled, breathing heavily.

"Fred – "

"No! I've been thinking, we should start phase one. The fireworks."

"Fred are you sure?"

Fred nodded at George. "We need to do it. There's nothing left for us here."

"I have Angelina…" George murmured.

"I know, and I'm sorry. But other than Angelina, there is no one or anything here for us anymore. Umbridge wants to expel us. We can't give her that satisfaction. We have to leave before she can make us."

"Fred, what about Hermione?"

"There is _nothing_." Fred glared fiercely at his brother, his warning tone indicating he didn't want to talk about Hermione any longer.

"Tonight?" George sighed, giving up.

"Tonight." Fred nodded.

XxXxX

The fireworks were set off, and everybody was raving about it for days. Fred and George were heroes in the Gryffindor common room the night it happened. Fred avoided Hermione that night, and for the rest of the next day.

He and George turned an entire corridor into a swamp. Umbridge cornered them in the Entrance Hall and they were surrounded by students, teachers and even ghosts. Members of the Inquisitorial Squad lined the stairs, watching Umbridge bear down on the twins excitedly.

"So!" Umbridge announced, triumphantly. "So – you think it's amusing to turn a school corridor into a swamp, do you?"

"Pretty amusing, yeah." Fred said, looking up at the toad – like woman, without the slightest hint of fear.

Filch elbowed his way closer to Umbridge, looking extremely pleased with himself.

"I've got the forms!" He huffed hoarsely. "I've got the forms and the whips waiting… oh let me do it now!"

"Very good, Argus." The toad said. "You two," She gazed at Fred and George. "Are about to learn what happens to wrongdoers in _my_ school.

"You know what?" Fred frowned. "I don't think we are."

He turned to George.

"Georgie, I think we've outgrown full – time education."

"Yeah, I've been feeling that way myself." George agreed lightly.

"Time to test our talents in the real world, d' you reckon?" Fred asked.

"Definitely." George nodded.

Before Umbridge could say anything, they raised their wands and said together,

"Accio brooms!"

A loud crash was heard somewhere in the distance. Fred and George's broomsticks, one still trailing the heavy chain and iron peg that had fastened them to the wall, were hurtling towards them. The stopped sharply in front of the twins.

"We won't be seeing you." Fred told Professor Umbridge, swinging his leg over his broomstick.

"Yeah, don't bother to keep in touch." George said, mounting his own.

Fred looked around at the assembled students, at the silent, watchful crowd. He noticed Hermione in the crowd and his gaze lingered. Their eyes met and he looked away sadly.

"If anyone fancies buying a Portable Swamp, as demonstrated upstairs, come to number ninety – three, Diagon Alley – Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes." He shouted to the hall. "Our new premises!"

"Special discounts to Hogwarts students who swear they're going to use our products to get rid of this old bat." George added, pointing at Professor Umbridge.

"STOP THEM!" Umbridge shrieked, but it was too late. Fred and George kicked off, shooting fifteen feet into the air, the iron peg swinging dangerously below. Fred looked across the hall at the poltergeist bobbing on his level above the crowd.

"Give her hell from us, Peeves."

Peeves nodded and swept his belled hat from his head, saluting Fred and George as he did so.

The twins span on their brooms to face the great oak doors. They saluted the students, who were applauding them, and sped out the open front doors.

Hermione smiled after them. Although Fred had departed on bad terms with her, she knew he was living his dream, and she would speak to him later.

"Love you…" She whispered, mainly to herself, stroking the necklace he had given her for Christmas.

* * *

**Okay, so I probably should have done a disclaimer, but I think it's safe to assume that I used quite a lot of JK's stuff but don't own it. **

**Also, please don't hate Seamus! I really don't think Seamus is the sort of person to do that, and I absolutely adore Seamus in the books, but I just had to use him because every other guy I thought of just felt wrong.**

**Also, I put a poll on my profile about the Battle of Hogwarts for when I get to it, so vote your opinion!**

**Leave a review telling me what you thought on the chapter! **

**Toodle Pip xx**


	21. I Don't Have a Problem

**So, chapter 21! I hope you liked chapter 20 and don't hate me too much for using Seamus as a bad**_**ish**_** guy! But keep reading and maybe, **_**just maybe,**_** I can make him good again.**

* * *

Ginny, Harry and Ron all had absolutely no idea what was going on with Hermione. Two days before the twins left, she was fine and dandy, but then, for whatever reason, she and Fred stopped talking. Suddenly, the twins were flying out of the castle, causing a huge commotion, and Hermione didn't even try to stop them.

Every time they tried to talk to her about it, she simply changed the subject, or ignored them.

Ginny was sitting on Hermione's bed, facing Hermione and giving her a stern look.

"Look, Hermione, you need to face your problems, and tell us what happened." Ginny said finally after a long silence.

"I don't have any problems. I'm absolutely fine." Hermione turned her head away, not wanting be under Ginny's scrutiny any longer.

"Everybody can see that you have a problem 'Mione." Ginny sighed, raising an eyebrow at Hermione. "It's pretty obvious."

"Is it _that _obvious?" Hermione blushed. Ginny nodded, and Hermione groaned, putting her head in her hands. Ginny reached forward and patted her friend's back awkwardly.

"Are you going to tell us what happened then 'Mione?"

Hermione shook her head. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Well I think you _need_ to talk about it!" Ginny shouted, making Hermione jump.

"It's _my _problem, let _me _deal with it!" Hermione shouted back.

"Not when it involves my brother!"

"Who said it involves your brother?!"

"Oh come on, don't insult my intelligence. One minute, you're happy, then the twins leave and you're sad. It's obviously about my brother and it isn't George." Ginny shot Hermione an 'I'm not stupid' look.

Hermione sighed. "Nothing I can do will make you believe I haven't got a problem?"

"Nothing. Now spill."

Hermione groaned. "Fine. Fred saw me with Seamus."

"And?" Ginny said, not quite understanding.

"And, I guess he freaked out."

"Why? What were you and Seamus doing?" Ginny asked, still not understanding. Hermione blushed and looked down at her hands in her lap. Ginny gasped. "Oh you weren't! How could you?!"

"I didn't want to! He forced me!" Hermione defended.

"Really?" Ginny eyed Hermione suspiciously. Hermione nodded sincerely. Ginny's eyes softened and wrapped her arms around Hermione, pulling her into a hug. "It's okay. Fred'll come round. He knows you aren't the sort of person to do this. And if he doesn't, George'll slap some sense into him."

Hermione nodded into Ginny's shoulder, not quite believing what she was saying.

XxXxX

George was getting very frustrated with Fred. They had used some of the money given to them by Harry at the end of last year to buy premises in Diagon Alley. It had a little flat on top that they had expanded with magic, along with the shop downstairs. Setting up shop had been slightly complicated, but it didn't help that Fred was moping about the place, moving things ever couple of hours.

They had been there two weeks now, and George had finally given up and just waved his wand to get things in place. He and Fred had both agreed months ago that when they got premises they would set everything up the muggle way, to get satisfaction in what they created. Yet with Fred barely helping, he had had to use magic, or he would have been there three years.

"Fred, come on! Get up!" He called through Fred's bedroom door opposite his own bedroom.

"I don't wanna…" Fred groaned, rolling over.

"Fred! We need to keep setting up! Two weeks to opening day!" George jumped out of his own bed and bounded into Fred's room. Fred threw a pillow at him and covered his face with his arm.

"Go away!"

"Fred, I know that you are hurt, but when we were planning this joke shop last year, we said that nothing, _nothing_ would stop us from opening this shop. We promised each other that we would never let anything stop us." George said seriously, sitting down at the end of Fred's bed.

"Your point?"

"My point is, I think you are letting what happened with Hermione, stop you from living your life and letting your dream come true."

"Dreams?" Fred scoffed. "You make it sound like a fairy tale. Let me tell you something George. There are no fairy tales. No charming prince, no damsel in distress, and no happy ending. Just broken hearts and a pile of hippogriff dung."

"Whether you like it or not, I believe in this shop, and yes it is a _dream_ of mine to open this shop. And I don't know whether you remember, but it used to be yours." George glared at his brother before storming into his own room, and ripping a piece of parchment out of his desk draw. He grabbed a quill, dipped it furiously in the ink bottle and wrote his letter.

He rolled it up and handed it to their owl, Wheezes. "Take it to Hermione. You know where she is." He muttered. The owl hooted and flew out of the open window.

"Was that Wheezes?!" Fred called through the door from his bed.

"Yeah, I was just sending a letter!" George shouted back.

"To who?!"

"Does it matter?!"

"Yes! Who?!"

"Hermione!"

Fred went silent.

"You alright Freddie?" George called.

"You're talking to Hermione?"

"Yeah…"

Fred went silent again. "Has she said anything about me?"

"I only just sent the letter Fred. Wheezes does have to get to Scotland and back remember?"

"I suppose."

* * *

**I know it's short, and I'm sorry, but I'm working on more chapters for you guys, and I have been posting oneshots if you want to check them out! And thanks to EVERYBODY who reviewed last chapter and I hope you don't get to angry about this midget chapter!**

**See you next Tuesday!**

**Toodle Pip xx**


	22. The Letter

**I thought it was time that I acknowledged one follower who has reviewed nearly every chapter since chapter 14, and even though it's sometimes something small, it still makes me happy :) So thanks to ME4427 and can I add, you are a **_**fantastic**_** drawer and I can't believe you drew all the drawings for your story covers! Thanks for reviewing! **

**And also a couple of others, , Laurelle Cullen, AlwaysShan and potterhead27! Thanks for reviewing my story! Every review makes me happy *nudge nudge wink wink***

* * *

Hermione woke to a tapping on her dormitory window at about four in the morning. She groaned, rolling out of bed and dragging her feet over to the window. She opened it and let the owl through. On a closer inspection, she noticed it was the twin's owl Wheezes (named after their joke shop, and for his wheezy breathing).

"Hello, Wheezes. What are you doing here?" She muttered softly, stroking his feathery head absentmindedly as she untied the letter from his claws. "I don't have any owl treats!" She exclaimed, looking around at the room.

Sighing, Hermione was forced to venture into Lavender and Parvati's area of the room. She held her breath to stop the perfume and aroma candles from poisoning her. Hermione fumbled around in the dark before coming into contact with a plastic bag. Holding it up to the moonlight she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw it was the owl treats.

"Here you go Wheezes." She muttered, giving the owl two treats. While he was eating, she unrolled the scroll he had delivered.

_Hermione_

_Could you please fix what you did to my brother? He's given up on the joke shop._

_I know there is a reasonable explanation as to why he saw you with Finnigan and could you please explain it to him because I would quite like it if he was actually doing something instead of making mess._

_George._

Hermione read through it, and then ran a hand through her unruly hair. If Fred was giving up on his dream on the joke shop, then this was serious. He had been dreaming about creating this joke shop since he and George were six. He had explained every little detail of the shop and how he wanted it to look, what products he wanted to make and how successful he dreamed it would be. Whenever he or George spoke about the joke shop, their faces lit up and it was like they lost control of their hands, they were flying about everywhere, jumping up and down and they would get extremely excited.

Squeezing her eyes tight to stop the guilty tears threatening to spill, she pulled out a piece of parchment and a quill from her bedside table and scribbled a quick apology to George and agreed to talk to Fred. Or try to.

Then she pulled out another piece of parchment and sat down to write a full on apology and explanation to Fred. Who knew if he would actually listen, but a least she had said her side of the story.

XxXxX

Fred forced himself out of bed at around eleven in the morning when he heard a tapping on the glass of his bedroom window. He opened it and his and George's owl, Wheezes, flew in. He dropped a letter on Fred's bed and flew up to sit on top of Fred's bookshelf.

Fred picked up the letter and turned it over. His hands began to shake, feeling both nervous and angry, when he saw Hermione's neat handwriting.

He opened the envelope and unfolded the parchment inside.

_Fred,_

_You probably don't even want to read this, and I can understand if you just throw it away. I understand that you don't want to talk to me, especially after what you saw (even if what you saw was nothing like you're probably imagining it). But George recently contacted me and told me that you have given up on your dream to run the joke shop and, please, _please_ don't give up on your dream. If anything, I don't care if you accept my apology, or even read it, but I am begging you to please never give up on your dream. Because at the moment, nothing matters to me more. Don't give up. _

_You are an _amazing_ prankster and I couldn't live with myself if you gave up on the joke shop because of what happened between you and me._

_Fred, I am _so_ sorry for what you saw. But you didn't give me a chance to explain. I didn't willingly kiss Seamus, let alone have a full blown affair with him. I have honestly never thought about Seamus that way, and now I absolutely hate Seamus for what he did, because he took you away from me. _

_I was walking along the corridor to class and then he pulled me behind the tapestry. We talked and he asked me to leave you, but I said no. I refused because I don't know whether you've noticed, but I love you. When I made to leave, he grabbed me and kissed me. I guess that must have been when you arrived. But I never ever meant for that to happen. _

_You should know that I would never do anything like that to you. _

_Please though, even if you don't ever forgive me, please don't give up on the joke shop._

_Forever yours,_

_Hermione _

Fred gulped and rubbed his eyes as he read and reread the letter. His head was spinning. He was so confused.

If Hermione was telling the truth, then he had a lot of big apologies to make. But he still wasn't sure if she was telling the truth or just telling him this to save her own skin. Deep down, Fred knew that Hermione wouldn't lie about a thing like this, but right now he was extremely hurt and not thinking straight.

Even so, what she said about the joke shop was definitely true.

He was giving up on his 'dream' and it was killing George, let alone himself. But it was hard to find inspiration and motivation when his whole world had just fallen apart. Hermione could be cheating on him, and although she 'says' she's not, there is always a possibility. Fred may be one of Hogwarts best pranksters, and one of the happiest, most resilient people out there, but how could anyone expect him to bounce back from that?

But now, he was going to try.

* * *

**I'm feeling a bit depressed today because I didn't the get the mark I was hoping for on an assignment and this girl in my class who I kind of have a rivalry with, beat me by 0.5 of a mark and she took great pleasure in rubbing it in. So leave me a lovely review to cheer me up!**

**See you next Tuesday.**

**Toodle Pip xx**


	23. Department of Mysteries

**Yay! Fred has realised how STUPID he's being and is starting to forgive Hermione! Now he just has to work out how he can get her back :) I wonder how it'll happen…*taps chin thoughtfully***

* * *

"George!" He shouted, still holding the letter. "_George_!"

George came thundering into his room, his wand out and eyes searching wildly for some kind of danger. When all he saw was a surprised Fred and no danger, he put his wand down.

"What?"

"You've been talking to Hermione, yes?"

"I don't know if I would classify one letter – "

"_Yes_?" Fred insisted, cutting his twin off.

"Yes." George sighed, crossing his arms.

"So, you know that she's absolutely devastated without me?" Fred winked, grinning at his brother.

George smiled back, obviously glad that Fred was making jokes again, even if it was a terrible one. He nodded to the letter in Fred's hand, and he handed it to him. George skimmed through the letter, before handing it back to his brother.

"She seems..._apologetic_." George commented.

Fred nodded. "As she should be." Another wink. George rolled his eyes. "I don't know what I should do though. I don't know whether I should forgive her, and if I do forgive her, how do I get her back?" He sat down on the bed, running a worried hand through his hair, and George sat down next to him.

Fred needed his twin's advice right now. He was freaking out, and his mind was all over the place. On one side, he had already forgiven Hermione and was once again planning how many kids they would have, but on the other side he was thinking of the ways he could murder Finnigan for stealing his girlfriend.

George seemed to study Fred's face for a moment before making his suggestion. "You've already forgiven her."

Fred said nothing. He grinned sheepishly at the floor and George nudged him smugly.

"Now we just need to make a plan."

"What kind of plan?" Fred asked warily. George's plans usually involved fireworks and large, over – the – top pranks.

"A spectacular kind of plan." George grinned.

XxXxX

Hermione was working extremely hard to get over Fred. She had sent the letter. She had said her piece and he hadn't replied. Hermione took that to mean he either hadn't read it or accepted it. It was obviously time to move on.

School was becoming an almost unbearable place to be. There was no way of doing the DA anymore, it was nearly the OWLs, Harry was worrying her and Dumbledore was still missing.

When Harry fell asleep in the History of Magic exam, Hermione knew something was going to go wrong. She just had a bad feeling in her stomach.

He ran into them at the top of the marble staircase, an extremely panicked look on his face.

"Harry!" Hermione shouted at once, feeling extremely frightened. "What happened? Are you alright? Are you ill?"

"Where have you been?" Ron demanded.

Harry ignored their questions, gesturing down the stairs. "Come with me." He said quickly. "_Come on_, I've got something to tell you."

He led them along a first floor corridor, peering through doorways, and at last found an empty classroom, into which he dived, closing the door behind Ron and herself the moment they were inside, and leaned against it, facing them.

"Voldemort's got Sirius."

"What?" Ron frowned.

"How d' you - ?" Hermione began, but Harry cut her off.

"Saw it. Just now. When I fell asleep in the exam."

"But – but where? How?" Hermione asked feeling extremely confused. Harry looked absolutely terrified, and this got Hermione even more worried.

"I dunno how," Harry groaned, frustrated. "But I know exactly where. There's a room in the Department of Mysteries full of shelves covered in these little glass balls and they're at the end of row ninety – seven…he's trying to use Sirius to get whatever it is he wants from in there…he's torturing him…says he'll end up killing him!"

Harry's voice was shaking, as were his knees, Hermione noticed. He moved over to a desk and sat down on it. Hermione leant on a desk opposite him, watching his white face carefully.

"How're we going to get there?" He asked them.

There was a moment's silence. Hermione widened her eyes in surprise at Harry and her stomach tightened even more. She knew exactly what Harry was thinking, and knew it could only end badly.

The silence seemed to drag on as Hermione and Ron shared a worried look, before Ron finally spoke up.

"G – get there?"

"Get to the Department of Mysteries, so we can rescue Sirius!" Harry raised an eyebrow at the two of them, as if it was obvious. Which it was, but that wasn't what Ron was asking.

"But – Harry…" Ron said weakly.

"What? What?!"

He obviously could not understand why they were both gaping at him.

"Harry," Hermione began. "Er…how…how did Voldemort get into the Ministry of Magic without anybody realizing he was there?"

"How do I know?!" Harry bellowed. "The question is how _we're _going to get in there!"

"But…Harry, think about this," Hermione started slowly, taking a step towards him. "It's five o' clock in the afternoon…the Ministry of Magic must be full of workers…how would Voldemort and Sirius have got in without being seen? Harry…they're probably the two most wanted wizards in the world…you think they could get into a building full of Aurors _undetected_?"

"I dunno, Voldemort used an Invisibility Cloak or something!" Harry shouted. Hermione took a step back, frightened. It was times like these that she wished Fred were there for her. "Anyway, the Department of Mysteries has always been completely empty whenever I've been – "

"You've never been there, Harry." Hermione murmured quietly. "You've dreamed about the place, that's all."

"They're not _normal_ dreams!" Harry shouted in her face, standing up and taking a step closer to her in turn. He seemed to put out his hands to put on her shoulders, but Ron stepped forward, taking on the protective role, and Harry backed up a bit. "How d' you explain Ron's dad then, what was all that about, how come I knew what happened to him?"

"He's got a point." Ron muttered to Hermione.

"But this is just – just sounds unlikely." Hermione said desperately, almost pleading with Harry to listen. "Harry, how on earth could Voldemort have got hold of Sirius when he's been in Grimmauld Place all the time?"

"Sirius might have cracked and just wanted some fresh air," Ron chimed in, sounding slightly worried. He and Hermione both knew how crazy Sirius was going, stuck in that house with no one but Kreacher and a portrait of his evil mother to talk to. "He's been desperate to get out of that house for ages – "

"But why," Hermione persisted. "Why on earth, would Voldemort want to use Sirius to get the weapon, or whatever the thing is?" Hermione was trying to calm Harry down and it was clear to her that Harry was not thinking straight.

"I dunno, there could be loads of reasons!" Harry yelled at her. "Maybe Sirius is just someone Voldemort doesn't care about seeing hurt – "

"You know what, I've just thought of something…" Ron said suddenly, in a hushed voice. "Sirius' brother was a Death Eater, wasn't he? Maybe he told Sirius the secret of how to get the weapon!"

Hermione had to give Ron credit for this one. That was quite smart. Even so, he was probably wrong.

"Yeah," Harry agreed, nodding along with Ron. "And that's why Dumbledore's been so keen to keep Sirius locked up all the time!"

"Look, I'm sorry," Hermione cried. "But neither of you is making sense, and we've got no proof for any of this, no proof Voldemort and Sirius are even there – "

"Hermione, Harry's seen them!" Ron said, rounding on her. Hermione rolled her eyes. Trust Ron to take Harry's side as soon as he gets vaguely delusional.

"Okay. _Okay._" She said, extremely determined to get her point across. "I've just got to say this – "

"What?"

"You…this isn't a criticism, Harry! But you do…sort of…I mean – don't you think you've got a bit of a – a – saving – people thing?!" She suggested.

He glared at her

"And what's that supposed to mean, 'a - saving - people thing'?"

"Well…you…" Hermione looked Harry up and down warily, before continuing. "I mean…last year, for instance…in the lake…during the Tournament…you shouldn't have…I mean, you didn't need to save that little Delacour girl…you got a bit…carried away…"

Harry's face seemed to light up in anger and Hermione tried to cover her tracks quickly to calm him down.

"I mean, it was really great of you and everything," She said quickly, feeling positively terrified of Harry right now. "Everyone thought it was a wonderful thing to do – "

"That's funny." Harry interrupted her, angrily speaking through gritted teeth. "Because I definitely remember Ron saying I wasted time acting the hero. Is that what you think this is? You reckon I want to act the hero again?"

"No, no, no! That's not what I meant at all!"

"Well spit out what you've got to say, because we're wasting time here!"

"I'm trying to say – Voldemort knows you Harry! He took Ginny down into the Chamber of Secrets to lure you there, it's kind of the thing he does, and he knows you're the – the sort of person who'd go to Sirius' aid! What if he's trying to get you into the Department of Myst – ?"

"Hermione, it doesn't matter if he's done it to get me there or not – they've taken McGonagall to St Mungo's, there isn't anyone from the order left at Hogwarts who we can tell, and if we don't go, Sirius is dead!"

"But Harry - what if your dream was - was just that, a dream?"

Harry let out a roar of frustration. Hermione actually stepped back from him, looking alarmed.

"You don't get it!" Harry shouted at her, "I'm not having nightmares, I'm not just dreaming! What d'you think all the Occlumency was for, why d'you think Dumbledore wanted me prevented from seeing these things? Because they're REAL, Hermione - Sirius is trapped, I've seen him. Voldemort's got him, and no one else knows, and that means we're the only ones who can save him, and if you don't want to do it, fine, but I'm going, understand? And if I remember rightly, you didn't have a problem with my saving-people thing when it was you I was saving from the Dementors, or -" he rounded on Ron "- when it was your sister I was saving from the Basilisk -"

"I never said I had a problem!" said Ron heatedly.

"But Harry, you've just said it," said Hermione fiercely, "Dumbledore wanted you to learn to shut these things out of your mind, if you'd done Occlumency properly you'd never have seen this -"

"IF YOU THINK I'M JUST GOING TO ACT LIKE I HAVEN'T SEEN -"

"Sirius told you there was nothing more important than you learning to close your mind!"

"WELL, I EXPECT HE'D SAY SOMETHING DIFFERENT IF HE KNEW WHAT I'D JUST-"

The classroom door opened. Harry, Ron and Hermione whipped around. Ginny walked in, looking curious, closely followed by Luna, who as usual looked as though she had drifted in accidentally.

"Hi," said Ginny uncertainly. "We recognized Harry's voice. What are you yelling about?"

"Never you mind," said Harry roughly.

Ginny raised her eyebrows. Hermione sucked in a breath. Ginny was famous for her terrifying Bat – Bogey hex.

"There's no need to take that tone with me," she said coolly, "I was only wondering whether I could help."

"Well, you can't," said Harry shortly.

"You're being rather rude, you know," said Luna serenely.

Harry swore and turned away. Hermione rolled her eyes at his temper, and Ron seemed relatively proud of his friend. Harry never swore, and Ron was happy he had rubbed off on the golden boy.

Hermione's brain started whirring and a plan started to form in her head as she looked at Ginny and Luna.

"Wait," said Hermione suddenly. "Wait… Harry, they can help."

And just like that they had a plan to break into Umbridge's office. Ron, Ginny and Luna disappeared off to do their part of the plan, and Harry ran to get his invisibility cloak. Hermione ran off to the corridor with Umbridge's office to meet Harry there.

Two minutes later, Harry came running down the stairs and skidded to a halt in front of her. He threw the invisibility cloak over the two of them and they moved forward, hidden by the cloak, past Luna and Ginny, who were both herding people away from the corridor.

"Yeah, horrible smell…dead in seconds…" They heard Ginny say as they passed her.

Hermione watched in confusion as Harry put the knife in the gap between the door and the frame, and the lock clicked.

"I thought she might have added extra security after the second Niffler." She muttered, breathing a sigh of relief.

They pulled off the cloak, and Hermione hurried over to the window and stood out of sight, peering onto the grounds with her wand out. Harry dashed over to the fireplace, seized the pot of Floo powder and threw a pinch into the grate, calling the address as he went.

She saw something move in the corner out of her eye, but before she could turn around, Umbridge and her Inquisitorial Squad had burst through the door and Millicent Bulstrode had grabbed her from behind.

Sooner than Hermione had expected, Umbridge had threatened Harry with an Unforgivable and Hermione was forming more plans in her head.

She needed to get Umbridge away from her 'army' and into a place where she was vulnerable.

The Forbidden Forest.

Hermione put her head in her hands, making sobbing noises.

"I'm – I'm sorry everyone," Hermione said. "But – I can't stand it – "

Harry was looking at her strangely, as if he couldn't quite place what she was doing.

Umbridge egged her on, and Hermione gulped.

"Well, well, he was trying to speak to Professor Dumbledore."

Ron froze, his eyes wide; Ginny stopped trying to stamp of her Slytherins captor's toes; and even Luna looked mildly surprised. Fortunately, the attention of Umbridge and her minions was focused too exclusively upon Hermione to notice these suspicious signs.

"Dumbledore?" Umbridge smiled creepily. "You know where Dumbledore is then?"

"Well…no." Hermione sobbed. "We've tried the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley, and the Three Broomsticks and even the Hog's Head – "

"Idiot girl – Dumbledore won't be sitting in a pub when the whole Ministry's looking for him!" Umbridge screeched, disappointment etched in every sagging line of her face.

"But – but we needed to tell him something important!" Hermione wailed, holding her hands tighter over her face, not out of anguish, but to disguise the continued absence of actual tears.

"Yes? What was it you wanted to tell him?!"

"We…we wanted to tell him it's r – ready!" Hermione choked.

"What's ready?" Umbridge demanded, grabbing Hermione's shoulders and shaking her. "What's ready, girl?!"

"The…the weapon…"

"Weapon? You have been developing some method of resistance? A weapon you could use against the Ministry? On Professor Dumbledore's orders, of course?"

"Y – y – yes! But he had to leave before it was finished and n – n – now we've finished it for him, and we c – c – can't find him t – to tell him!"

"What kind of weapon?"

"We don't really u – understand it." Hermione sniffed loudly. "We j – just did what P – P – Professor Dumbledore told us t – t – to do."

Umbridge straightened up, looking excited.

"Lead me to the weapon."

"I'm not showing…_them_." She pointed to the Slytherins, looking away from Umbridge as she did so, to hide her dry face.

"It's not for you to set conditions." Umbridge said harshly.

"Fine," said Hermione, now sobbing into her hands again. "Fine… let them see it, I hope they use it on you! In fact, I wish you'd invite loads and loads of people to come and see! Th - that would serve you right - oh, I'd love it if the wh - whole school knew where it was, and how to u - use it, and then if you annoy any of them they'll be able to s - sort you out!"

These words had a powerful impact on Umbridge. She glanced swiftly and suspiciously around at her Inquisitorial Squad, her bulging eyes resting for a moment on Malfoy, who was too slow to disguise the look of eagerness and greed had appeared on his face.

Umbridge contemplated Hermione for another long moment, then spoke in what she clearly thought was a motherly voice.

"All right, dear, let's make it just you and me…we'll take Potter as well, shall we? Get up, _now_."

XxXxX

Hermione led Harry and Umbridge deep into the forest. She kept her eyes peeled, looking for the markings she had seen on the tree's last time she was in here.

"How much further?" Umbridge demanded angrily from behind them.

"Not far now!" Hermione shouted, trying to make as much noise as possible. "Just a little bit – "

An arrow flew through the air and landed with a menacing thud in the tree just over her head. The air was suddenly full of the sound of hooves; Hermione could feel the sound the Forest floor trembling; Umbridge gave a little scream and pushed Harry in front of her like a shield.

"Who are you?" A voice called through the trees.

Hermione and Harry looked left. The chestnut – bodied centaur called Magorian was walking towards them out of the circle, his bow, like those of the others, was raised. On Hermione's left, Umbridge was still whimpering, her wand trembling violently as she pointed it at the advancing centaur.

"I asked you who are you, human."

"I am Dolores Umbridge." Umbridge said in a high – pitched, terrified voice. "Senior Undersecretary to the Minister for Magic and Headmistress and High Inquisitor of Hogwarts!"

Hermione groaned. Umbridge had just made a huge mistake. The centaurs got angry and trampled the three of them, carrying Umbridge off on their backs, before rounding on Hermione and Harry. Just as Hermione was starting to panic, Grawp turned up, and sent the centaur herd running.

Harry and Hermione ran through the forest together, away from a roaring Grawp and a shouting herd of centaurs.

"Oh no," Hermione said, quaking so badly that her knees nearly gave way. "Oh that was horrible. And he might kill them all."

"I'm not that fussed to be honest." Harry panted.

The sound of galloping centaurs and a blundering giant grew fainter and fainter.

"Smart plan." He spat at Hermione. "Really smart plan. Where do we go from here?"

"We need to get back up to the castle." Hermione muttered faintly.

"By the time we've done that, Sirius'll probably be dead!" Harry shouted, kicking a nearby tree in temper.

Well, we can't do anything without wands." Hermione shrugged. "Anyway, Harry, how exactly were you planning to get all the way to London?"

"Yeah, we were just wondering that." A familiar voice called from behind her.

Hermione moved closer to Harry instinctively, peering through the trees.

Ron came into sight, closely followed by Ginny, Neville and Luna. All of them looked a little worse for wear – there were several long scratches running the length of Ginny's cheek; a large purple lump was swelling above Neville's right eye; Ron's lip was bleeding worse than ever but all were looking rather pleased with themselves.

"So," Ron said, pushing aside a low – hanging branch and holding out Harry's wand. "Had any ideas?"

"How did you get away?" Harry asked in amazement, taking his wand from Ron.

"Couple of Stunners, a Disarming Charm, Neville brought off a really nice little Impediment Jinx," Ron grinned, handing Hermione's wand to her. She took it, smiling at Neville proudly. "But Ginny was the best, she got Malfoy – Bat Bogey Hex – it was superb, his whole face was covered in the great flapping this. Anyway, we saw you out of the window heading into the Forest and followed. What've you done with Umbridge?"

"She got carried away. By a herd of centaurs." Hermione explained.

"And they left you behind?" Ginny questioned, looking astonished.

"No, they got chased off by Grawp." Harry answered.

"Hagrid's little brother," Ron waved it off. "Anyway, never mind that now. Harry what did you find out in the fire? Has You – Know – Who got Sirius or - ?"

"Yes, but I can't see how we're going to get there to help him."

They all fell silent, looking rather scared; the problem facing them seemed huge and impossible.

"Well, we'll have to fly, won't we?" Luna said, in the closest thing to a matter – of – fact voice Hermione had ever heard her use.

* * *

**I hope you liked it! Most of it was JK but I tried to put my own work in there, and incorporate Hermione's feelings a bit more. **

**I think I am just going to skip over the Department of Mysteries battle _because _I want to have a bit of Fred, and then the Hospital Wing scenes. Don't hate me for skipping it, but I want to get Fred and Hermione back together just as quickly as you do :)**

**Leave me a wonderful review, and MAYBE I'll update on Saturday as a special treat :D**

**See you next Tuesday.**

**Toodle Pip xx**


	24. The Hospital Wing Again

**Since I got some rather nice reviews on my chapter, I'm updating twice in one week! I know I promised Saturday but I'm going on holiday and won't be able to update, so Thursday it is! That also means I won't update on Tuesday either! I'm sorry! **

**Nearly 25 chapters! :D Maybe I'll do another special thing for 25, but you'll never know *taps nose secretively***

* * *

Fred turned the sign on the joke shop door to closed, ushering the last few customers out the door. He hopped up onto the counter, smiling slightly as he looked at the shop they had finally managed to open.

He looked up suddenly when George came thundering down the stairs that lead to the flat above.

"Fred! _Fred!_" George shouted, waving a letter in his hand. "Now, don't panic – "

"What's that?" Fred interrupted him.

" – you might want to sit down – "

"I am sitting down."

" – because I just got some news – "

"What kind of news?"

" – so again, you might want to sit down – "

"I am sitting down. Just tell me what the news is!"

" – because apparently, HermionewenttotheministrytosaveSiriuswithHarryRonG innyNevilleandLuna." George said, extremely quickly, hiding his mouth with his hand.

"What?" Fred cupped his ear, indicating to George he hadn't heard.

George took a deep breath. "Hermione went to the ministry to save Sirius with Harry, Ron, Ginny, Neville and Luna."

"What? Is she okay? What happened? Where's Sirius? Why was he in the ministry?" Fred asked quickly.

"Well, you see, Sirius um…Sirius is…well Sirius fell through the veil kind of…"

"What do you mean, 'the veil'?" Fred narrowed his eyes at George.

"Well, the veil to – well Sirius is…dead."

Fred gaped at his twin in shock and slight disbelief. He didn't want to believe that Sirius, their most trusted fellow prankster beside Lee, was dead. Sirius had been their inspiration for many pranks, and had even provided ideas for joke products for their shop.

"What? No…no he can't have!" He exclaimed.

George nodded solemnly, looking at his shoes sadly.

"That's not all. Ginny broke her ankle, Luna – well, she's still as weird as ever, Ron touched a brain, and Hermione kind of died."

Once again, Fred simply gaped at his brother. But this time it wasn't in shock or disbelief, but in horror and pain. He felt as if someone had physically stabbed him in the heart. His heart stopped beating and his breath caught as the news sunk in.

"She – she – she's _dead_?"

"No, _NO_, she's absolutely fine. You see, she kind of died for like ten minutes according to mum, but Harry and Neville protected her and Madame Pomfrey brought her back. She wasn't quite dead, more like…extreme comatose."

"What? Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Fred leapt up and practically flew towards the fireplace.

"Where are we going?" George asked, handing the pot of floo powder to his brother.

"Hogwarts of course!"

"How are we gonna get in?"

"I have my ways." Fred tapped his nose secretively, before taking a bit of floo powder from George, stepping into the fire and shouting 'Hogwarts Hospital Wing!'

He zoomed through the floo system until he went thump on a wall, blocked by a magical ward. He got out his wand, and much like when they collected Harry in his sixth year, blasted a whole in the wall.

XxXxX

Hermione heart practically exploded as a huge exploding noise sounded from the far corner of the Hospital Wing. A sooty, bright ginger head appeared and then another.

She peered through the smoke as two tall bodies came bounding out of it.

"Fred? George? What the…?"

"'Mione? Are you okay?" George asked, coming and sitting on the end of her bed. Fred hung back, standing at the end of her bed.

"What's going on?" A groggy Ron rubbed his eyes, sitting up, confused. He had been asleep, and hadn't woken up at the explosion, but at George simply _speaking_.

"Go back to sleep Ronnie – kins." George waved his arms at Ron, turning his attention back to Hermione. Ron frowned, and lay his head back on his pillow, snoring immediately. "How are you 'Mione?" George asked again, more solemnly this time.

"I've told you, I'm fine." Hermione sighed, looking away.

"You know that's not what I mean."

"What _do_ you mean?" Hermione turned back to look at him, an eyebrow raised.

"Well, I mean, you've had a pretty rough night…" George trailed off slowly, not quite knowing what to say.

Hermione shook her head slightly, squinting her eyes slightly. Fred knew this was a sign that she was trying to hide the tears that were building. He stepped forward to comfort her and saw her flinch a little. Feeling as though someone had just plunged a dagger in his heart, he took a step back and put a warning hand on George's shoulder.

George shrugged Fred's hand off, and put his own hand on Hermione's, in an attempt to be comforting. He looked from Fred to Hermione, before grinning mischievously, jumping up, and running out of the Hospital Wing, locking the door behind him.

Fred glared at the door his brother had just departed through, as if he could somehow glare a hole in George's head through the door.

He rocked on his feet, turning back to face Hermione, who was looking everywhere but him. He decided to treat her the same, looking at the stain glass window above her bed. He had never noticed it before but now that he had, he couldn't help but feel it was being rather patronising. It didn't even fit with the other stain glass windows which were depicting medical scenes.

This one was depicting a bushy – haired woman being tricked into cheating on her boyfriend. And guess what colour the boyfriend's hair was.

Ginger.

"Did you do that?" He asked hoarsely, pointing to the window.

"What?" She asked, tilting her head up to look at the window behind him.

"The window. Did you make it?" He nodded at the window.

"The picture? Oh, no! It's a window that imitates what you're thinking about." She blushed a bright red, looking down at her lap.

"Oh." Fred's mouth formed in a perfect 'o' shape. That hurt. Was she thinking about it as much as he was then? It was running through his head 24/7. He had _nightmares_ about it. He kept seeing Hermione and Finnigan laughing in his face when he saw them. It was horrible.

Hermione stayed silent, apparently waiting for someone else to speak. And considering the only two people in the room were Fred and Ron, and Ron was asleep, that duty fell upon Fred.

He sighed. Slowly coming forward, he sat down awkwardly on the end of her bed, since there were no chairs. She stiffened under the sheets, and moved her feet so he had more space.

"Look, Hermione I – "

"Fred, I said it all in my letter, but since you never replied, can I ask you a question now?" Hermione interrupted him. Fred smiled lightly. She hadn't changed much.

"You just did, but you may ask another." His eyes twinkled, much like Dumbledore's do when he's talking to a student.

"How's the shop?"

"Is that it?" Fred almost laughed, but he knew there was much more to Hermione's question than it had sounded. Like many of Hermione's questions always were, it was a layered question. Although it wouldn't seem like it to an outsider, she wasn't really asking about the shop. It was her way of asking how _he_ was.

Hermione cocked her head to side, giving Fred a stern look.

Fred sighed. "It's going well. We've had a huge flow of customers since we opened, it's been great. You, Harry and Ron will have to come visit over the summer. You and Harry don't have to pay of course."

"What about Ron?" Hermione raised an eyebrow.

"He should just be happy he doesn't have to pay extra." Fred shrugged. The corners of Hermione's lips twitched but didn't quite form a smile.

As Fred looked down at the broken Hermione in front of him, he suddenly realised that it was his fault. He had left her with no explanation at all, hadn't even let her say her side of the story and most of all, he hadn't been there for her to protect her from the monsters. He had been hurt, sure, but not as much as she had in the past few weeks.

"And what about you?" She asked quietly, clearly not quite happy with the answer she had received from Fred.

"Well, I don't have to pay of course…"

"Not about that. You know what I mean."

Fred sighed again. "I'm fine."

Hermione raised a disbelieving eyebrow but said nothing. They both sat awkwardly, not saying anything to each other, looking in different directions.

Fred started to tap his thumb against her leg without realising, until she flinched away from him.

"Are you scared of me or something?" He would've laughed if it hadn't of probably been true.

"Not scared…"

"Terrified? Traumatized? Timid? Timorous?" Fred started to list all the words beginning with T that meant scared.

"None of those…"

"Upset then? Uneasy? Unrestful? Unstrung?"

"Stop!" Hermione held up a hand to silence him.

"Then what are you? Scared or upset? Terrified or uneasy? Trauma – "

He was silence by a look from a stern look from Hermione.

"Am I forgiven?" He asked quietly.

Hermione looked shocked. "What? Why do I need to forgive you? You've done nothing wrong!"

It was Fred's turn to look shocked now. "I've done everything wrong! Look at you! You're broken! And it's my fault!" He exclaimed. She looked down at her lap, drawing her knees up close to her chest, protectively.

"It's not your fault." She murmured softly.

"Oh really? Then whose fault is it? Because it isn't yours!"

"It's not your fault." She repeated, slightly louder.

"It's not my fault that Seamus kissed you. It's not my fault that Voldie-warts is dead set on murdering Harry. It's not my fault that Sirius is gone. But it is my fault that you are sitting here with a broken heart."

"I haven't got a _broken_ heart. It's largely dented, but not necessarily broken. Well actually, what do you classify as a broken heart? Do you classify a broken heart as snapped in half or do you classify it as just, not in its usual shape. Because I'd say it's – "

Fred held up a hand. Hermione was rambling, which was slightly helpful because it told him that she was nervous. Which she shouldn't be. She should be comfortable around him.

"Calm down Hermione. If you want me to classify your heart-break level, then even if it is dented as you say it is, then that's broken. Because it's not how it should be, and I'd say that's pretty broken." Fred shrugged. Hermione looked at him strangely.

"It's still not your fault." Hermione insisted. "It's mine. I basically drove you away."

"You didn't drive me away." Fred shook his head.

"But I did, because of what I did."

"And what exactly did you do? Get _attacked_ by Finnigan? That's not your fault."

Hermione looked away, squeezing her eyes tight to stop the tears, but to no avail. A stray tear escaped her eyes, and Fred's heart clenched at the sight of the tears that he had caused.

"I need to take responsibility for my mistakes, Fred! Don't you see?!" Hermione exclaimed.

"No, I don't see! _You_ didn't make a mistake! Finnigan did, because he messed with me. Now, I just have one question for you. Punch or prank?"

Hermione looked completely aghast at the idea of asking Fred to punch or even to prank someone, but Fred could see in her face, that she was clearly thinking very hard about it.

On one hand, he wouldn't be able to get into trouble anymore because he isn't actually a student at the school anymore, but there was still McGonagall who would punish them, whether they were students or not. Although, Fred insisted that she actually liked the twins, no matter how many detentions she gave them. It hadn't helped his detention record when he had brought up this particular opinion.

Hermione tapped her chin, before looking evilly at Fred and smiling genuinely for the first time that night.

"Prank."


	25. The Jealous Twin

***SPECIAL CHAPTER UPDATE BECAUSE I AM BACK FROM HOLIDAY AND HAVE URGENT NEWS***

**Guys, this is the second **_**last **_**chapter! UNLESS you leave me lovely reviews BEGGING me not to go! I will do a sequel if you'd rather that, and you guys can choose what year I start that from; after the war or sixth year or maybe even seventh year? But you guys also have the option of me not ending! But I need to know soon so I know whether I should keep writing the chapters or not…**

**But for this chapter, this is going to be a prank to defeat all pranks. Possibly. I've never been good at thinking up pranks. But, Umbridge is sitting in the Hospital Wing freaking out every time someone clucks their tongue so I can make my prank as ridiculous as I want without getting in trouble so there *pokes out tongue***

* * *

Seamus Finnigan woke the morning after the exams feeling very weird. He couldn't think properly, and he went to touch a hand to his head, but couldn't make contact with any time of skin at all. He attempted to focus on his hand, but he could only see a white shape.

'Oh merlin. I'm a ghost. I've died.' He started to panic. He attempted to jump out of bed, but he floated up to the ceiling like a balloon.

"Dean. _Dean._" He called, trying to stay calm, but his voice shook with panic. "_Dean_!" He called more urgently.

He heard a groan from the bed beside him before a pillow flew at him. It went right through him, confirming Seamus' suspicions of his sudden death. He looked below him at his bed, and saw his still body lying beneath him. That was when he started to really panic.

"_Dean _wake up!" He shouted.

"What do you want?!" Dean Thomas shouted back, sitting up. His eyes focused on his best friend, who was still floating up near the ceiling. "What the – "

"I'm dead!" Seamus screeched.

"What? Why?!"

"Really? That's your question? _Why? _What about, _how_?!"

Dean leapt out of bed, and took two fast steps over to where his friends body lay. He checked for a pulse, while Seamus rolled his eyes, obviously thinking this action was pointless.

"You've still got a pulse. You're not dead…" Dean said slowly.

"Then what is this?!" Seamus gestured to the rest of his ghostly body.

Dean shrugged. "I don't know, but we can work it out later. Right now, I would like to go back to sleep please?"

Seamus looked at the clock and saw it was only three in the morning. He looked sheepishly over at his friend and nodded, resigning to accept his current situation.

"I suppose I should make the best of this situation." Seamus floated towards the door. "I'm off to chat with some ghosts." He called as he floated through the closed door.

XxXxX

Hermione sighed, looking over the top of her paper at Harry. "There you are, Harry, I knew they'd drag you into it somehow."

She was still in the hospital wing. Harry was sitting on the end of Ron's bed and they had both been listening to her read the front page of the Sunday Prophet. Ginny, whose ankle had been mended in a trice by Madam Pomfrey, was curled up at the foot of Hermione's bed; Neville, whose nose had likewise been returned to its normal shape and size, was in a chair between the two beds; and Luna, who had dropped in to visit, clutching the latest edition of The Quibbler, was reading the magazine upside-down and apparently not taking in a word Hermione was saying.

"He's the 'boy who lived' again now, though itsn't he?" Ron said darkly. "Not such a deluded show-off any more, eh?"

"Yes they're very complimentary about you now, Harry." Hermione mused, scanning down the article. "'A lone voice of truth…perceived as unbalanced, yet never wavered in his story…forced to bear ridicule and slander…' Hmmm," She frowned. "I notice they don't mention the fact that it was them doing all the ridiculing and slandering in the Prophet…"

She winced and put a hand to her ribs. The curse Dolohov had used on her, though less effective than it would have been had he been able to say the incantation aloud, had nevertheless caused, in Madam Pomfrey's words, 'quite enough damage to be going on with'. Hermione was having to take ten different types of potion every day, was improving greatly, and was already bored with the hospital wing.

"_You – Know – Who's Last Attempt to Take Over, pages two to four, What the Ministry Should Have Told Us, page five, Why Nobody Listened to Albus Dumbledore, pages six to eight, Exclusive Interview with Harry Potter, page nine…_Well," Hermione rolled her eyes, folding up the newspaper and throwing it aside. "It's certainly given them lots to write about. And that interview with Harry isn't exclusive, it's the one that was in The Quibbler months ago…"

"Daddy sold it to them." Luna said vaguely. "He got a very good price for it too, so we're going to go on an expedition to Sweden this summer to see if we can catch a Crumple-Horned Snorkack."

Hermione fought to roll her eyes, and correct Luna for a moment, before she recovered and recomposed herself. "That sounds…lovely. Anyway," She sat up a little straighter and winced again. "What's going on in school?"

"Well, Flitwick's got rid of Fred and George's swamp." Ginny sighed. "He did it in about three seconds. But left a tiny patch under the window and he's roped it off."

"Why?" Hermione asked, confusedly.

"Oh, he just says it was a really good bit of magic." Ginny shrugged.

"I think he left it as a monument to Fred and George." Ron said, through a mouthful of chocolate. "They sent me all these, you know." He pointed to the small mountain of Frogs beside him. "Must be doing all right out of that joke shop, eh?"

Hermione shot Ron a disapproving look. "So has all the trouble stopped now Dumbledore's back?"

"Yes," Neville agreed. "Everything's settled down."

"I s'pose Filch is happy?" Ron muttered, propping his chocolate frog card against his water jug. It was of Dumbledore. The miniature Dumbledore scratched his nose, before winking at the group of people.

"Not at all," Ginny laughed. "He's _really_ miserable actually…" She lowered her voice to a whisper. "He keeps saying Umbridge was the best thing to happen to Hogwarts."

All six of them turned to look at Professor Umbridge, who was lying in a bed opposite them, gazing up at the ceiling. Dumbledore had rescued her from the centaurs, the night after their venture into the Department of Mysteries.

"Madam Pomfrey says she's just in shock." Hermione whispered. The teacher hadn't uttered a word since her return to Hogwarts.

"Sulking, more like." Ginny made a face at the teacher.

"Yeah, she shows signs of life if you do this though." Ron grinned, and with his tongue, he made soft clipclopping noises. Umbridge sat bolt upright, looking around wildly.

"Anything wrong Professor?" called Madam Pomfrey, poking her head round her office door.

"No…no…" Umbridge sank back into her pillows, staring back up at the ceiling.

Hermione and Ginny both muffled their laughter in the sheets of Hermione's bed.

Harry stayed silent for a moment, while they talked about the possible contents of the prophecy, before he stood up, muttering something about Hagrid.

"Say hello to him for us!" Hermione called, looking after him worriedly. Harry had been rather quiet in all his visits since they had gotten back two days ago.

XxXxX

A few hours later, everyone had left, including Ron, who had managed to convince Madam Pomfrey to let him go to dinner ('it's not like me being here is doing anything for my health, and I'm annoying Hermione!'). This was true. He was annoying Hermione. His snoring was impossible to bear, and his constant eating was almost as bad.

Hermione was looking around, twiddling her thumbs when a two ghostly figures floated through the great double doors, talking quietly.

They got the middle of the room, when Hermione felt pain shoot into her rib and she winced loudly. The smaller ghost turned around at the noise and he looked around the room until his eyes focused on Hermione. She squinted at his face, trying to work out who he was.

Seamus Finnigan.

He shot Hermione a terrified look, before flying out the door. The ghost whom he had been talking with, looked around confusedly before shrugging at Hermione and floating, calmly through the wall.

Hermione frowned at the situation, feeling extremely confused. Just at that moment, she heard shouting from the corridor and two flaming red heads appeared in the doorway, backing away from McGonagall, who was waving her new walking stick at them. She must have just gotten back from St Mungo's and run into the twins.

"You are not to call me Minnie!" McGonagall said loudly, her voice shaking. It was clear she was trying to keep her voice from rising to a volume that was much louder than it already was. Her mouth was a thin, white line, like it was whenever she spoke to the twins.

"But Minnie, we're friends now!" Fred insisted.

"Yeah, we aren't students anymore!" George nodded enthusiastically.

"So technically – "

"Our relationship has space – "

"To blossom into – "

"What I feel would be – "

"A beautiful – "

"Heartwarming – "

"Memorable – "

"Friendship." The twins finished, looking extremely scared of their ex – professors angry face.

McGonagall's hand shook with silent anger, or could it be laughter? Her eyes softened as she looked at the twin's terrified faces and she slowly lowered her walking stick.

"Whether you are my students or not, you are not to call me 'Minnie'. Not being my students gives me a lot wider range of punishments than just point – taking and detentions."

Fred and George gulped, looking at her warily.

"You wouldn't really harm us." George smiled weakly.

"Would you?" Fred squeaked.

"Mr Weasleys', it does not matter whether I would harm you or not, it matters as to _why_ I would harm you. Why are you here?" McGonagall sighed, raising an exasperated eyebrow. She had obviously hoped to be rid of the troublesome twins when they had flown out of the Entrance Hall two months ago.

"Well, Hermione here has gotten herself into a spot of bother." George pointed to Hermione, who moaned slightly, not wanting to be brought into this. McGonagall's eyes flicked to her, and Hermione caught something in them. Was that – pity?

"And we're here to cheer her up!" Fred clapped his hands together.

"But enough about us – " George shook his head.

"How are _you_, Minnie?" Fred ignored Hermione's warning look and continued with his nickname for the Transfiguration teacher.

"You took a nasty hit from those stunners." George eyed her walking stick warily, as it was rising up again, preparing to hit them. "We should really be looking after you."

"_But,_" Fred said quickly, pulling George further away from their dangerous professor. "We'll just sit quietly here, and leave you alone now, _Minnie_." He couldn't help it. The name was the type of name that stuck.

McGonagall nodded stiffly, before shooting Hermione another pitying look, and spinning on her heel, marching swiftly out of the Hospital Wing.

"You idiot!" Hermione screeched, as soon as the teacher was gone.

"What did I do?" George asked, a shocked look on his face.

"You – you – you just – argh – you're just an idiot!"

"Wow 'Mione. Don't hold back on the insults." George laughed, coming and sitting in the chair Neville had been in a few hours ago.

Hermione stuck her tongue out at him before rounding on Fred. "And you! Care to explain to me why Finnigan was in here moments ago, as ghost?! I said prank him, not _kill_ him!"

"I didn't kill him." Fred said calmly, lounging back in the chair he had taken on Hermione's other side.

"He's dead! I never wanted him dead!" Hermione shouted, tears forming in her eyes.

"He's not dead."

"I may have said – wait, what?" Hermione paused, looking at him confusedly.

"He's not dead."

"But…how? I mean, he was…he could go through walls…and he was dead looking."

"Ghostly Gums. Dead for a day. I slipped him one in his dinner last night. Don't know why it took so long to come into affect though. We should check that." He muttered turning to George, who nodded.

"Yeah, but maybe a delayed reaction is good, create an element of false security and BAM!"

"Excuse me, but you invented a sweet to kill you for a day?!" Hermione stared at the twins with a mix between anger and admiration.

"Not kill you. Though, it seems like you've died because you can see your own body. You'll just remain comatose for the day while your spirit floats around. Much like you have died, but you haven't." George shrugged.

Hermione looked from one twin from the other, not sure whether to compliment them, or scold them.

"But that's…that's brilliant." She murmured, finally settling on compliment.

The twins shrugged again, simultaneously.

"How did you do it?" She asked, always eager to get to the bottom of a spell.

"Some simple poisons mixed with the Draught of Living Death, and some protective charms." Fred said.

"You brewed the _Draught of Living Death_?!" Hermione was impressed. That was an extremely complex potion, and almost impossible to get right.

The twins shrugged again, simultaneously.

"Don't act like this is nothing! That's amazing!" She exclaimed.

The twins shrugged again, simultaneously.

"Stop shrugging!" She shouted. They laughed at her, and George patted her knee.

"I've got to go visit Angie. I haven't seen her for ages." He sighed, standing up.

"Aw, you getting withdrawal symptoms Georgie?" Fred joked.

George stuck his tongue out as his brother, kissed Hermione lightly on the cheek and bounded out the double doors, singing a happy tune.

They heard George shout 'ow!' and someone yell 'Shut up!'. Fred and Hermione laughed, before looking back at each other.

"So Madam Pom Pom's said you could get out tomorrow." Fred twiddled his thumbs awkwardly, trying to think up a more interesting topic of conversation.

"Yeah, and then I can sleep in my own bed again before we go home." Hermione glared down at the uncomfortable Hospital bed. "These beds are horrible!"

Fred poked the rock hard bed. "They never have been the most comfortable."

They sat talking quietly for a while, Hermione still watching Fred in amazement. He was slightly uncomfortable under her admiring gaze, but at least she was looking at him again.

XxXxX

Hermione practically skipped out of the Hospital Wing the next day. She pushed open the door to the Gryffindor girls dormitory and looked around, expecting to see either Lavender or Parvati, but found neither. Over in the corner, her wardrobe was shaking violently.

She reached into her back pocket for her wand, pointing it at the wardrobe. Hermione hoped it was simply a boggart and nothing more sinister.

If it was a boggart she knew how to handle them, although she should probably go and get Harry and Ron for back up.

Running back down the stairs, she found the common room completely empty aside from a noisy group of first years. Rolling her eyes, she resigned herself to tackling it on her own and headed back up the stairs.

Standing a good three feet away from the wardrobe, she pointed her wand at the door handle, forcing the wardrobe open.

Out stepped a flaming red haired boy, who looked up at Hermione, grinning cheekily. Hermione gasped when she recognised him as Fred. Then she looked at him confusedly, as he definitely wasn't something she was scared of.

Then, he got a look of complete shock on his face and blood started trickling down his chest, from a wound that had appeared just over his heart. Another appeared in his shoulder, and another in his stomach. Hermione's eyes widened in shock, and she put a hand over her mouth, her chest heaving with the effort of holding her tears back.

She shakily raised her wand to shout 'Riddikulus', but the words got stuck in her throat, and she sunk to the floor as tears started to fall down her cheeks.

Just as she had reached the floor, the _real_ Fred came running into the room, holding his broom, which he must have used to get up the stairs. He spotted Hermione crying over a body but couldn't see it clearly. The face was slightly blocked but as he took a step closer, his heart sunk in his chest.

George.


End file.
